WASHINGTON — An Indian national who admitted to orchestrating a multimillion-dollar Medicare fraud through a Washington state testing lab has been sentenced to two years in federal prison and ordered to repay more than $1.17 million, U.S. Attorney Charles Neil Floyd announced on Tuesday.
Mohammed Asif, 35, was arrested on April 10, 2025, at Chicago O’Hare International Airport as he attempted to board an international flight. In addition to his prison term, he must pay $1,174,813 in restitution and now faces likely deportation after serving his sentence.
Asif pleaded guilty on September 4 to conspiracy to commit health-care fraud tied to the operations of American Labworks LLC, a diagnostic laboratory based in Everett, Washington, that has since shut down. U.S. District Judge James L. Robart, who imposed the sentence, called the loss to Medicare “a significant amount of money” and said Asif “lacks moral character as a knowing participant in the fraud… He is someone the public needs to be protected from.”
Prosecutors said Asif and his co-conspirators submitted claims to Medicare for COVID-19 and other respiratory tests that were neither ordered by physicians nor performed on patients. “Mr Asif participated in a scheme to steal more than a million dollars from Medicare — funds that are meant to be used for important medical care,” U.S. Attorney Floyd said.
He added that Medicare fraud remains widespread and damaging. “Regrettably, schemes like this one are not unique. Medicare is a constant target of fraud, and the harm to the United States and taxpayers is substantial.”
According to court filings, Washington state business records show that American Labworks was established in October 2021 and dissolved in March 2025. Its Medical Test Site license expired in December 2023. Throughout that period, Asif was listed as the lab’s owner and director with both the state and Medicare.
Claims data between April and December 2024 show the company billed Medicare more than $8.7 million for diagnostic services and received more than $1.1 million in payouts. Complaints soon followed: from June 2024 to March 2025, Medicare logged over 200 reports from beneficiaries, physicians, and others questioning charges attributed to the lab.
Some beneficiaries reported being billed for tests they never took. One enrollee said Medicare paid American Labworks $545 for COVID-19 tests in August 2023 and March 2024, even though no such tests were performed. Other patients said they had never heard of the physicians listed as referring providers. Several doctors whose names appeared in the lab’s billing records told investigators they had not referred any patients.
In several cases, claims included testing dates after the beneficiary had died. Other submissions named referring physicians who were already deceased when the tests were supposedly ordered.
Financial records placed Asif at the centre of the operation. Prosecutors said he controlled the lab’s bank account, received multiple checks, and made large cash withdrawals — including $260,000 in May 2024 alone. Not long afterward, Asif, who was in the U.S. on a student visa, left for India. He returned in March 2025 as the investigation intensified.
“Billing Medicare for millions of dollars’ worth of laboratory testing that was never furnished is a serious offence that undermines the integrity of our healthcare system and diverts critical resources away from those who truly need them,” said Robb R. Breeden, Acting Special Agent in Charge of HHS-OIG.
FBI Seattle Special Agent in Charge W. Mike Herrington said Asif exploited the pandemic for personal gain. “Like so many other fraudsters who take advantage of such situations, Mr Asif used the COVID-19 pandemic to steal from taxpayers for his own benefit,” he said. (Source: IANS)
