Indian National Pleads Guilty to $227M Medicare Fraud

Syed Murtuza Kablazada, 36, an Indian national residing in Des Plaines, Illinois, pleaded guilty on October 30, 2026 to two counts of health care fraud in connection with a $227 million Medicare fraud scheme. Over six months beginning in January 2023, Kablazada and co-schemers acquired three Chicago-area laboratories: Chicago Care, V Care, and Al-Ameer. These entities served as the billing vehicles for the scheme. Kablazada paid approximately $11 million to a purported telemarketing company based in Pakistan to obtain personally identifiable information for hundreds of thousands of Medicare beneficiaries. Using that information, he caused the three laboratories to submit $227 million in false and fraudulent claims to Medicare for over-the-counter COVID-19 test kits that were never requested by or shipped to the identified beneficiaries. Medicare paid approximately $136 million on those claims. To conceal the participants' involvement, Kablazada and co-schemers paid themselves through overseas money transfers and unlicensed money transmitters, and used fraud proceeds in part to purchase luxury vehicles. As part of the plea agreement, Kablazada agreed to forfeit over $46 million in fraud proceeds seized from ten bank accounts. Kablazada faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. Sentencing is scheduled for a later date. The FBI Chicago Field Office and HHS-OIG investigated the case, which is being prosecuted by DOJ's National Fraud Enforcement Division Health Care Fraud Section and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Illinois.