An executive at a major suburban medical laboratory helped submit $66.2 million in fraudulent COVID-19 testing claims, resulting in at least $44.1 million in federal payments, prosecutors allege. Rajesh Patel, 53, of Schaumburg, transferred approximately $28 million of the proceeds into accounts he controlled, according to a five-count wire fraud indictment filed Monday in federal court in Chicago.
Prosecutors allege Patel fabricated approximately 380,000 negative COVID-19 test results for tests the laboratory never completed and submitted them to a federal program that reimbursed providers who administered tests to people without health insurance. The laboratory, identified in the indictment only as “Laboratory A,” is based in Hillside and continues to list Patel on its leadership page.
In March 2021, it agreed to process COVID specimens purportedly collected at Meridian Medical Staffing testing sites, paying Meridian approximately $60.3 million for gathering the purported specimens and providing patient information used to submit reimbursement claims, prosecutors allege. Many of the purported patients either did not exist or had never submitted COVID-19 specimens to Meridian, according to the indictment…