Zishan Alvi , the owner of a medical testing science lab in Chicago , pleaded shamefaced to one count of wire pseud on Monday , agree to a printing press release from theU.S. Department of Justice . Alvi ’s adroitness , know as LabElite , was releasing negative covid-19 trial run outcome to patients that either were n’t perform or were inconclusive . The only reason anyone work out it out was that some patients pick up positively charged tests while waiting on their resolution from LabElite and were baffled about the mutually exclusive information from the Chicago research laboratory .
In acourt filingfrom 2023 , prosecutors laid out how Alvi submitted roughly $ 83 million in faux claim to the Department of Health and Human Resources sub - government agency known as Health Resources and Services Administration ( HRSA ) from February 2021 to February 2022 . The research lab offered PCR and speedy tests for covid begin in late 2020 , during the first twelvemonth of the pandemic .
Alvi ’s lab was raid by the FBI in February 2022 and the 45 - year - quondam pleaded guilty this hebdomad to $ 14 million Charles Frederick Worth of shammer , know that he wittingly submitted sham claims to HRSA , according to a DOJ press liberation .
File photo of a covid-19 test.© Photo by Jens Kalaene/picture alliance via Getty Images
AsArs Technicanotes , Alvi bought a bunch of elevator car and hoard his ill - get win in both traditional coin bank account and a Coinbase account . The cable car are listed in the bill of indictment as : a 2021 Mercedes - Benz GLB 250 , a 2021 Land Rover Range Rover HSE , a 2021 Lamborghini Urus , A 2021 Bentley , and a 2022 Tesla X.
“ The suspect short-change the American people at a time when we were most vulnerable , in the midst of a global pandemic . This bill of indictment evidence that the FBI along with our law enforcement partners is continually working to keep Americans safe and uphold the Constitution as our mission need of us , ” Robert W. Wheeler , Jr. , Special Agent - in - armorial bearing of the Chicago Office at the FBI , said in a statementback in 2023when the indictment was first made public .
Alvi faces up to 20 years in prison and is scheduled to be sentenced on February 7 , 2025 . Roughly 1.2 million Americans have fail from the covid-19 pandemic , and the virus continues to circulate . And governance reimbursement money away , it ’s implausibly unethical to be pass on out fake test results to anyone for any reason .
“ It is dead reprehensible that the defendant would use a public health crisis to allegedly defraud taxpayer and further put public health at risk by leave fraudulent COVID-19 test results , ” Attorney General Kwame Raoul said in a pressure release .
“ I want to give thanks the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois , the Chicago Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation , the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General , and all of the police enforcement partners act upon to declare those who perpetrated this dodging accountable . ”
COVID-19DOJPandemicTestingZishan Alvi
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