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Texas Lab Owner Indicted for COVID-19 Fraud Scheme

NEW YORK — The US Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Missouri said Wednesday that it has indicted a Texas businessman on wire fraud, conspiracy, and obstruction charges stemming from a COVID-19 testing fraud scheme.

According to the government, Rashid Naqvi, a Houston-area resident, fraudulently sought $4.6 million from Medicare for COVID-19 test kits and obtained $2.0 million.

Between March 2023 and September 2024, Naqvi allegedly billed Medicare $4.6 million for COVID-19 tests sent to patients who had never requested them, including many individuals who were dead. He obtained their Medicare numbers and identifiers by paying $488,435 in illegal kickbacks to co-conspirators and submitted the claims through two laboratories he owned, Elite Diagnostics in Missouri, and Astro Diagnostics in Texas.

According to the indictment, Naqvi attempted to conceal the scheme by disguising kickbacks as payments for COVID-19 tests and creating a sham contract with one of the companies supplying the information and submitting false documents to Medicare investigators during an audit. He also continued submitting false claims to Medicare after patients called to tell him that they did not request or want the test kits.

Naqvi received $2.0 million in payments from Medicare.

Naqvi has been indicted on four counts of wire fraud conspiracy and one count each of obstruction of a federal audit and conspiracy. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges. Wire fraud is punishable by up to 20 years in prison, a $250,000 fine, or both. Obstruction of a federal audit and conspiracy are each punishable by up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.