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The owner of a Chicago-based emerging COVID test has been charged with several counts of fraud, which allegedly received $83 million from the government.
CHICAGO (WLS) – On his public LinkedIn page, Zishan Alvi touted his lab’s ability to meet the call for COVID-19 testing.
But in the 10-count indictment, federal prosecutors allege he filed fraudulent applications that charge the federal government more than $83 million.
“This amount of money is not the average source of income from an average fraud scheme. It was a very successful ploy in light of the indictment,” said Gil Soffer, legal analyst at ABC7.
Alvi’s lab introduced immediate checks, PCR checks and a service where Americans and businesses can simply pay a payment to get accelerated PCR test results, the prosecutor said.
The federal government named Alvi’s company, calling it only “Lab A,” but Alvi’s LinkedIn page says he is LabElite’s president. The indictment came here just over a year after the FBI raided the company’s Norwood Park offices.
Alvi reportedly requested reimbursement for tests that were never performed. To reduce prices and generate profits, prosecutors said, he shortened the tests, making them unreliable.
The complaint says he also ordered staff to disclose negative effects to patients, even when no tests were conducted.
“According to the allegations, he provided false effects to people, patients, who appear to have been induced not to have COVID, when presumably, in some cases, they can only have it,” Soffer said.
On his LinkedIn page, Alvi, 44, from Inverness, says “every check we process is helping someone. “However, prosecutors said he used the cash he stole to buy luxury cars, as well as stocks and cryptocurrencies.
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