Washington: An Indian national who admitted to orchestrating a multimillion-dollar Medicare fraud through a Washington-based diagnostic lab was sentenced to two years in federal prison, US Attorney Charles Neil Floyd announced.
Mohammed Asif, 35, who was taken into custody on April 10, 2025, at Chicago O’Hare International Airport as he attempted to board an international flight, has been ordered to pay $1,174,813 in restitution. He now faces likely deportation after completing his sentence.
Asif pleaded guilty on September 4 to conspiracy to commit health care fraud tied to the operations of American Labworks LLC, a now-defunct diagnostic testing laboratory in Everett, Washington.
US District Judge James L. Robart, delivering the sentence, described the $1,174,813 fraud loss as “a significant amount of money. It was money that was siphoned out of the Medicare system, which is designed to treat the elderly and the poor… (The defendant) lacks moral character as a knowing participant in the fraud… He is someone the public needs to be protected from.”
Prosecutors said Asif and his co-conspirators billed Medicare for COVID-19 and other respiratory tests that were neither ordered nor performed. US Attorney Floyd said, “Mr Asif participated in a scheme to steal more than a million dollars from Medicare — funds that are meant to be used for important medical care.”
He added, “Regrettably, schemes like this one are not unique. Medicare is a constant target of fraud, and the harm to the United States and taxpayers is substantial. We will continue to investigate and prosecute such fraud schemes.”
According to court filings, Washington state records show American Labworks was formed in October 2021 and dissolved in March 2025. Its license as a Medical Test Site expired in December 2023. Throughout this period, Asif was listed as the owner and director with the state and Medicare.
Claims data from April to December 2024 show that the lab billed Medicare more than $8.7 million for diagnostic services and received over $1.1 million in payouts. Complaints soon followed. Between June 2024 and March 2025, Medicare logged more than 200 complaints from beneficiaries and others about the lab.
Some beneficiaries reported charges for tests they never received. One enrollee said Medicare paid American Labworks $545 for COVID-19 tests in August 2023 and March 2024, even though they were never tested on those dates. Others said they had never even heard of the physicians listed as referring providers. Several doctors, whose names appeared in the lab’s billing records, told investigators they had not referred patients to the facility.
In some cases, records showed testing dates after a beneficiary had died. Other claims showed referrals by physicians who were themselves deceased at the time the tests were supposedly ordered.
Financial records placed Asif at the centre of the operation. Prosecutors said he controlled the company’s bank account, received multiple checks, and withdrew large sums. In May 2024 alone, he withdrew $260,000. Soon after, Asif—then residing in the US on a student visa—left for India. He returned in March 2025 just as investigators were closing in.
“Billing Medicare for millions of dollars’ worth of laboratory testing that was never furnished is a serious offence that undermines the integrity of our healthcare system and diverts critical resources from those who truly need them,” said Robb R. Breeden, Acting Special Agent in Charge of HHS-OIG.
FBI Seattle Special Agent in Charge W. Mike Herrington said, “Like so many other fraudsters who take advantage of such situations, Mr Asif used the COVID-19 pandemic to steal from taxpayers for his own gain…”
(IANS)
