An Illinois man entered a guilty plea Friday in federal court for orchestrating a sprawling $227 million health care fraud scheme that exploited purchased beneficiary data to bill the government for unrendered COVID-19 diagnostic tests.
Syed Murtuza Kablazada, a 36-year-old Indian national residing in Des Plaines, Illinois, pleaded guilty to two counts of healthcare fraud. According to federal prosecutors, Kablazada and his co-conspirators acquired three Chicago-area medical laboratories between January and June 2023 to serve as vehicles for the operation. The facilities—identified as Chicago Care, V Care, and Al-Ameer—subsequently submitted vast waves of fraudulent claims to Medicare for test kits.
Investigators detailed how the enterprise relied on personal information acquired from abroad. Kablazada funneled approximately $11 million to a Pakistani firm purportedly offering telemarketing services. In return, the operation obtained the personal identifying information of hundreds of thousands of Medicare beneficiaries without their knowledge or consent.
Using this pilfered data, the laboratories billed Medicare for tests that patients had neither requested nor received. Over the course of six months, the entities submitted roughly $227 million in fraudulent billings, resulting in approximately $136 million in payouts from the federal program.
To obscure the illicit proceeds, Kablazada and his associates routed funds through international transfers and unlicensed financial intermediaries. The Justice Department reported that portions of the stolen capital were diverted to acquire luxury vehicles.
Under the terms of his plea agreement, Kablazada consented to the forfeiture of more than $46 million that federal investigators had seized from 10 distinct bank accounts. He now faces a maximum penalty of up to 20 years in federal prison.
