Overview

• Zishan Alvi received an 84-month federal prison term for orchestrating a 2021–2022 scheme in which his Chicago laboratory billed the Health Resources and Services Administration for tests that were never performed or were diluted to yield unreliable results.
• U.S. District Judge John Tharp called the operation a “fraud on a massive scale,” highlighting that patients depended on false negative results to make decisions about family and community safety.
• Alvi was ordered to pay $14.2 million in restitution and to forfeit roughly $6.8 million in cash, luxury vehicles, and brokerage funds seized by prosecutors.
• Prosecutors revealed that Alvi used the illicit proceeds to buy high-end vehicles and to invest in stocks and cryptocurrency.
• The FBI and HHS-OIG led the investigation that exposed how the lab discarded thousands of tests during the Omicron surge while continuing to submit fraudulent claims.