A Texas laboratory owner, Osman Syed, has been charged in a huge $79 million fraud scheme related to medical testing. The fraud, which involved submitting false claims to Medicare and Medicaid, is one of the largest of its kind. The authorities are taking serious actions against Syed and his co-conspirators for cheating the healthcare system and misusing the personal information of a doctor. Here’s how this scheme unfolded.
The Fraudulent Scheme Unveiled
Osman Syed, 34, is accused of running BioDX Labs LLC (BioDX), a medical laboratory in Texas. According to the charges, Syed submitted over $79 million in fraudulent claims to Medicare and Texas Medicaid. These claims were for a medical test called the respiratory pathogen panel (RPP), which detects various types of respiratory infections.
The problem? These tests were never actually provided to the patients. The claims submitted to Medicare and Medicaid were completely false, and the tests were not medically necessary. In some cases, the patients who were supposed to have the tests didn’t even know they were being billed for them.
How did Syed do this? He used the personal identifying information of a doctor without the doctor’s permission or knowledge. This doctor was not treating the patients, nor had they ordered the tests for any of them. In short, the doctor’s information was used illegally to make it seem as if the tests were legitimate.
Concealing the Truth
To hide his illegal activities, Syed took extra steps to cover up the fraud. He falsely claimed that BioDX was sending the tests to other laboratories for processing, when in fact, the tests were not being performed at all. This helped make the fraud harder to detect and allowed Syed to continue submitting fake claims to Medicare and Medicaid without raising suspicions.
These false claims for medical tests that were never done led to millions of dollars in payments to BioDX Labs. In total, over $79 million in fraudulent claims were submitted to Medicare and Medicaid.
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Laundering the Stolen Money
After making the fake claims and receiving payments from Medicare and Medicaid, Syed and his co-conspirators moved quickly to launder the stolen money. They did this by transferring large sums of money to bank accounts in other countries, including China, Hong Kong, Turkey, Greece, and Switzerland. This was done to hide where the money was going and make it harder for authorities to trace the funds.
The government has taken action in the case by seizing over $15 million in cash that was part of this money-laundering operation. This is one of the many steps being taken to try to recover the stolen funds and bring the criminals to justice.
The Charges Against Osman Syed
Syed faces serious legal consequences for his actions. He is charged with three counts of healthcare fraud, which could each lead to up to 10 years in prison. He is also facing charges related to money laundering and conspiracy to commit money laundering. The government is making it clear that they will hold him accountable for his role in this massive scam.
The investigation is being carried out by several federal and state agencies, including the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Homeland Security Investigations, the U.S. Secret Service, and the Texas Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit. Together, these agencies are working hard to uncover the full extent of the fraud and bring everyone involved to justice.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant Chief Brynn Schiess of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section, a unit dedicated to fighting healthcare fraud in the United States. Since 2007, this division has charged over 5,400 individuals involved in healthcare fraud schemes, which have cost the government billions of dollars.
This case highlights the importance of holding those who abuse the healthcare system accountable and shows the lengths some individuals will go to in order to steal from the public. The ongoing investigation aims to ensure that those responsible for this large-scale fraud are held responsible for their actions.
