Washington:An Indian national who admitted to orchestrating a multimillion-dollar Medicare fraud through a Washington-based diagnostic lab was sentenced to two years in federal prison, US Attorney Charles Neil Floyd announced.

Mohammed Asif, 35, who was taken into custody on April 10, 2025, at Chicago O'Hare International Airport as he attempted to board an international flight, has been ordered to pay $1,174,813 in restitution. He now faces likely deportation after completing his sentence.

Asif pleaded guilty on September 4 to conspiracy to commit health care fraud tied to the operations of American Labworks LLC, a now-defunct diagnostic testing laboratory in Everett, Washington.

US District Judge James L. Robart, delivering the sentence, described the $1,174,813 fraud loss as “a significant amount of money.

It was money that was siphoned out of the Medicare system, which is designed to treat the elderly and the poor…(The defendant) lacks moral character as a knowing participant in the fraud… He is someone the public needs to be protected from.”

Source:Ndtv