Naperville Brothers Spent Insurance Fraud Money On Gold Bars And Watches: DOJ

NAPERVILLE, IL — Two brothers from are accused of submitting nearly $300 million in fraudulent insurance claims for services not provided and spending the proceeds on real estate, watches, vehicles and gold bars, according to authorities.

Minhaj Feroz Muhammad, 37, and Sufyan Feroze, 35, owned and controlled, sometimes through straw owners, four clinical laboratories in Illinois and California, authorities said.

The brothers were indicted last week in a superseding indictment on charges related to the fraud scheme and for participating in a money laundering conspiracy with the proceeds, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

“Allegedly billing almost $300 million dollars to taxpayer-funded and private health care programs for services that were never provided is a staggering abuse of resources,” Deputy Inspector General for Investigations Christian Schrank of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General, said in a news release.

Their scheme sought to defraud Medicare, Medicaid and private insurers by submitting fraudulent claims of over $293 million for COVID-19 laboratory testing services that were never provided, for which insurers paid at least $65 million in reimbursements, according to the department. They participated in a money laundering conspiracy by transferring fraud proceeds between laboratories and other businesses, authorities said.

Each of the brothers is charged with six counts of health care fraud and one count of money laundering conspiracy, according to the department. Feroze is also charged with one count of engaging in a monetary transaction in criminally derived property in excess of $10,000, authorities said.
If convicted, they face up to 10 years in prison on each health care fraud charge and 20 years on the conspiracy to commit money laundering charge, according to the department. If convicted, Feroze faces an additional 10 years on the engaging in a monetary transaction in criminally derived property charge, authorities said.