Indian National Pleads Guilty in $227M Medicare Fraud: Bought Beneficiaries' Data to Bill for COVID Test Kits Never Delivered
An Indian national has pleaded guilty to a $227 million Medicare fraud scheme, the Justice Department announced on October 30. Syed Murtuza Kablazada, 36, an Indian national residing in Des Plaines, Illinois, admitted that personally identifiable information for hundreds of thousands of Medicare beneficiaries was purchased and used to bill Medicare for COVID-19 test kits that were never provided.
According to court documents, over about six months starting in January 2023, Kablazada and his co-schemers acquired three Chicago-area laboratories — Chicago Care, V Care, and Al-Ameer — and paid approximately $11 million to a purported telemarketing company based in Pakistan for the beneficiary data. The laboratories then submitted $227 million in false and fraudulent claims for over-the-counter COVID-19 test kits that were never requested or shipped; Medicare paid approximately $136 million.
As part of his plea agreement, Kablazada agreed to forfeit more than $46 million in fraud proceeds seized from ten bank accounts. He pleaded guilty to two counts of health care fraud and faces a maximum of 20 years in prison; a sentencing date has not been set. The case was announced by Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald of the National Fraud Enforcement Division, FBI Chicago Special Agent in Charge Ryan Whalen, and HHS-OIG Special Agent in Charge Thomas Ethridge, and was investigated by the FBI Chicago Field Office and HHS-OIG.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：2018年版联邦医保卡样本。美国联邦医保中心，公共领域。 / A sample 2018 Medicare card. U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, public domain.
