Des Plaines man pleads guilty in $227 million Medicare fraud

A Des Plaines resident pleaded guilty Friday to federal charges stemming from allegations of a $227 million Medicare fraud involving fake COVID-19 tests, authorities said.

Syed Murtuza Kablazada, 36, faces up to 20 years in prison after admitting guilt to two counts of health care fraud, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. A sentencing hearing for Kablazada, who prosecutors said is an Indian national, has not been scheduled.

As part of his plea agreement, Kablazada agreed to forfeit more than $46 million in fraud proceeds that law enforcement seized from 10 bank accounts, DOJ officials said.

According to federal prosecutors, Kablazada and his co-schemers acquired three Chicago-area laboratories, Chicago Care, V Care, and Al-Ameer, starting in January 2023. He then paid approximately $11 million to a purported telemarketing company based in Pakistan to obtain personally identifiable information for hundreds of thousands of Medicare beneficiaries, officials said.

Using that information, Kablazada caused the laboratories to submit $227 million in false and fraudulent claims to Medicare for test kits that he knew were never requested by or shipped to the Medicare beneficiaries, for which Medicare paid approximately $136 million, prosecutors alleged.

To conceal their involvement, Kablazada and his co-schemers paid themselves through overseas money transfers and unlicensed money transmitters, and they used the proceeds in part to purchase luxury vehicles, according to the DOJ.

The FBI’s Chicago Field Office and the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General investigated the case.

ckeeshan@dailyherald.com