The co-owner of Laboratory Elite in Chicago, Zishan Alvi, received government funding for the company during the period between February 2021 through February 2022. The indictment alleges Alvi and others at the company created a plan to cheat the government into giving them reimbursements for COVID tests that were ultimately never performed or used.
Under the Health Resources and Services Administration, federal funding was administered to provide COVID-19 tests for individuals without insurance. Alvi’s company would allegedly scam the service by either never performing these COVID tests, performing tests in a way that was not accurate, or charging customers additional costs for tests, despite them being federally funded.
The indictment seeks forfeiture from the defendant of at least $6.8 million in alleged ill-gotten gains, in addition to five luxury vehicles and funds from other trade investment accounts.
Alvi would scam the government by pressuring employees to give customers fraudulent results without performing COVID tests, the indictment claims. “In order to conceal the fact that tests were not performed, Alvi instructed Laboratory Elite employees to release purported negative COVID-19 test results to individuals, when Alvi knew that no tests were performed.”
You mean someone actually defrauded the federal government? Color me shocked!