illinois, Chicago, USA: An Indian citizen, Mohammed Asif, has been sentenced to two years in a U.S. federal prison after admitting to his role in a major Medicare fraud scheme connected to a Washington-based testing facility.
Asif, 35, was taken into custody on April 10 at Chicago O’Hare International Airport while preparing to leave the country. He later entered a guilty plea in September for conspiring to commit health care fraud involving the operations of American Labworks LLC, a diagnostic laboratory located in Everett, Washington.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Washington, Asif and his partners submitted fraudulent claims to Medicare for COVID-19 and respiratory illness tests that were never ordered or conducted.
State records show that American Labworks was registered in October 2021 and officially dissolved in March 2025. The laboratory’s Medical Test Site license, issued by the Washington Department of Health, expired in December 2023.
Documents filed in court indicate that Asif was listed as both the owner and director of the lab. Between April 2024 and December 2024, the facility submitted claims totalling more than $8.7 million to Medicare, receiving over $1.1 million in payments.
During sentencing on December 2, U.S. District Judge James L. Robart described the fraud amount—$1,174,813—as substantial, noting that the scheme took advantage of vulnerable individuals. He emphasised that Asif posed enough risk to the public to warrant a strong sentence.
In addition to prison time, Asif has been ordered to repay the full fraud amount as restitution. Authorities stated that he is expected to face deportation after completing his sentence. Meanwhile, investigators from the FBI and HHS-OIG continue to search for other individuals involved in the conspiracy, who remain unaccounted for.
