Syed Murtuza Kablazada has pleaded guilty to two counts of healthcare fraud in a scheme that submitted $227 million in false claims to Medicare for COVID-19 test kits.
Prosecutors said Kablazada, an Indian national living in Illinois, and his co-schemers acquired three Chicago-area laboratories. Over six months beginning in January 2023, he paid about $11 million to a purported telemarketing company in Pakistan for personal information belonging to hundreds of thousands of Medicare beneficiaries.
The laboratories then billed for kits that beneficiaries had neither requested nor received. Medicare paid about $136 million, according to the plea record. The scheme used overseas transfers and unlicensed money transmitters to conceal the participants’ involvement, while some proceeds went toward luxury vehicles.
Kablazada agreed to forfeit more than $46 million seized from ten bank accounts. Sentencing has not yet been set, and the statutory maximum is 20 years’ imprisonment; the judge will determine the sentence under the Guidelines and other federal factors.
The Justice Department’s case summary was issued October 30.
