2025 Health Care Fraud Takedown in Chicago: 13 Charged in Covid-Testing and Medicare Schemes. Where the Cases Stand

Case from 2025–2026 (U.S. Attorney's Office release: July 1, 2025; later developments are from court records and other sources cited below). Published on Scammers.com Oct. 16, 2026; case status is current as of that date.

Updated Oct. 21, 2026: A laboratory owner, Rajesh "Raj" Patel, was indicted Oct. 19, 2026, in a separate case involving specimens supplied by Meridian Medical Staffing. See "Related case: Rajesh 'Raj' Patel" in section 3.

On July 1, 2025, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Illinois announced charges against 13 defendants in five cases as part of what it called the largest national health care fraud enforcement action in Justice Department history [1]. Prosecutors said some of the schemes involved more than $1.83 billion billed to government programs and private insurers, and more than $865 million paid out.

Fifteen months later, one defendant has pleaded guilty, charges against two have been dismissed, several are listed as fugitives, and the rest are pending. Here is where each case stands as of Oct. 16, 2026.

Important: Except where a guilty plea is noted, every person named here is charged only and presumed innocent. Charges against Mahmood Sami Khan and Suhaib Ahmad Chaudhry were dismissed in June 2026.

1. U.S. v. Charolia et al.: Pakistani call center, $703 million in claims

According to the indictment as summarized by prosecutors [1]:

• The call center: Ruknuddin "Rick" Charolia, 43, and Aamir Ali Arif, 32, allegedly ran a call center in Pakistan called Hello International Marketing Solutions (HIMS). It allegedly obtained Medicare beneficiary information through theft and deception.
• Fake consent: HIMS allegedly contacted beneficiaries for "consent" to medical equipment, Covid-19 test kits and genetic tests that were often not requested or needed. Consent for the test kits was sometimes faked with artificial intelligence, according to the charges.
• Scale: Charolia, Aamir Ali Arif, Shearyar Arif, 28, and Fizza Farid, 29, allegedly caused about $703 million in fraudulent claims and received at least about $418 million from Medicare and Medicare Advantage plans.
• Data sales: Charolia, Aamir Ali Arif and Faizan Saleem, 28, were also charged with conspiring to violate the Anti-Kickback Statute by selling Medicare beneficiary information to equipment suppliers and labs. All five were charged with money laundering conspiracy.

Status: HHS-OIG lists Charolia as a wanted fugitive whose possible whereabouts are Pakistan [2]. HHS-OIG also lists Shearyar Arif and Faizan Saleem as fugitives [3]. We found no plea or trial for any of the five.

2. U.S. v. Ahmed et al.: $894 million in Covid-19 testing claims

According to the indictment as summarized by prosecutors [1]:

• The claims: Anosh Ahmed, 41, formerly of Chicago and Houston, Mohamed Sirajudeen, 53, of Chicago, and Mahmood Sami Khan, 36, of Houston allegedly caused labs in Illinois and Texas to bill the federal HRSA Covid-19 Uninsured Program about $894 million for testing, of which about $293 million was paid.
• Patient lists: Ahmed, described in the release as a physician, allegedly used patient information from sources including a patient list from a hospital where he once worked, and falsely claimed the patients were uninsured people who had submitted test samples.
• Laundering: The four defendants, including Suhaib Ahmad Chaudhry, 34, of Houston, allegedly laundered the proceeds. The government said it seized about $100 million in assets.

Status:

• Anosh Ahmed: arrested in Serbia, later agreed to extradition, and pleaded not guilty in Chicago on Aug. 31, 2026, to a superseding indictment, according to ABC7 Chicago. He remains in custody [4]. News reports identify him as a former chief financial officer of Loretto Hospital.
• Mohamed Sirajudeen: pleaded guilty on Aug. 5, 2026, admitting he worked with Ahmed in the scheme, according to ABC7 Chicago [5].
• Mahmood Sami Khan and Suhaib Ahmad Chaudhry: charges permanently dismissed in June 2026. Prosecutors moved to drop the charges after U.S. District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman scheduled a hearing on alleged grand jury misconduct by a prosecutor, the Chicago Sun-Times reported [6]. They stand cleared of these charges.

3. U.S. v. Elkoussa: $233 million in claims for specimens never collected

According to the indictment as summarized by prosecutors [1], Jamil Elkoussa, 35, of Orland Park, Illinois, ran Meridian Medical Staffing, which claimed to collect Covid-19 test samples at sites in Illinois and Florida. He allegedly caused a lab to bill the HRSA program about $233 million for samples that were never collected, many from patients who did not exist. The lab was paid about $154 million and Elkoussa received more than $60 million, according to the charges. He is charged with five counts of wire fraud. About $6 million in assets were seized.

Status: pending; no later outcome found in public sources as of Oct. 16, 2026.

Related case: Rajesh "Raj" Patel (added Oct. 21, 2026)

On Oct. 19, 2026, a federal grand jury in the Northern District of Illinois indicted Rajesh "Raj" Patel, 52, of Schaumburg, Illinois, in a separate case. According to the Justice Department, Patel was co-owner and chief operating officer of a clinical laboratory in Hillside, Illinois, that processed PCR tests during the pandemic. Around March 2021 the lab entered into an agreement with Meridian Medical Staffing and paid it tens of millions of dollars to collect specimens and supply patient information; in reality, prosecutors say, many of those patients never existed or never gave specimens [8].

Prosecutors allege that between May 2021 and April 2022 Patel created fake "negative" results for at least 380,000 PCR tests on Meridian-supplied specimens that the lab never performed, so the lab could bill the HRSA Uninsured Program. The lab allegedly submitted about $66.2 million in claims and was paid about $44.1 million, and Patel personally obtained about $28 million. He is charged with five counts of wire fraud [8]. The release does not name Elkoussa or say whether Patel's lab is the lab referred to in the Elkoussa case.

Status: indicted Oct. 19, 2026; pending. An indictment is an allegation, and Patel is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.

4. U.S. v. Muhammad et al.: Next Labs

Minhaj Feroz Muhammad, 37, and Sufyan Feroze, 34, of Naperville, were charged over FZ Medical Inc., doing business as Next Labs, which allegedly submitted more than $72 million in false claims to Medicare and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois for Covid-19 tests that weren't provided, and was paid more than $9.7 million [1].

A superseding indictment returned Dec. 4, 2025, expanded the case. It alleges the brothers controlled four labs in Illinois and California, sometimes through straw owners, and billed more than $293 million, collecting at least about $65 million. It also alleges they spent the proceeds on real estate, including overseas luxury developments, gold bars, luxury watches and cars. Each faces six counts of health care fraud and one count of money laundering conspiracy [7].

Status: pending; no later outcome found in public sources as of Oct. 16, 2026.

5. U.S. v. Farley: Unlabeled Botox from China

Cher Farley, 52, of Earlville, Illinois, was charged in a criminal information with causing foreign-sourced drugs labeled as Botox and "Sotox" to be brought in from China without proper labeling and dispensing them without a prescription to multiple people [1].

Status: pending; no later outcome found in public sources as of Oct. 16, 2026.

Red flags

• Medicare statements showing Covid tests, braces or genetic tests you never asked for.
• Calls asking you to "confirm" your Medicare number or say "yes" on a recorded line.
• Cosmetic injections at bargain prices outside a licensed medical office.

What to do if you're targeted

1. Check your Medicare Summary Notices at medicare.gov and report unfamiliar items.
2. Report suspected fraud to HHS-OIG at oig.hhs.gov/fraud/report-fraud or 1-800-HHS-TIPS.
3. Report suspect cosmetic drugs to the FDA through MedWatch.

Case status (as of Oct. 16, 2026)

Defendant	Court	Status as of Oct. 16, 2026	Source
Ruknuddin "Rick" Charolia, 43	N.D. Ill.	Indicted; listed as HHS-OIG fugitive; status pending	[1], [2]
Aamir Ali Arif, 32	N.D. Ill.	Indicted; no later outcome found in public sources as of Oct. 16, 2026	[1]
Shearyar Arif, 28	N.D. Ill.	Indicted; HHS-OIG lists as fugitive; status pending	[1]
Fizza Farid, 29	N.D. Ill.	Indicted; no later outcome found in public sources as of Oct. 16, 2026	[1]
Faizan Saleem, 28	N.D. Ill.	Indicted; listed as HHS-OIG fugitive; status pending	[1], [3]
Anosh Ahmed, 41	N.D. Ill. (Judge Coleman)	Extradited from Serbia; pleaded not guilty to superseding indictment Aug. 31, 2026; in custody; pending	[1], [4]
Mohamed Sirajudeen, 53, Chicago	N.D. Ill.	Pleaded guilty Aug. 5, 2026, per news reports; sentencing pending	[1], [5]
Mahmood Sami Khan, 36, Houston	N.D. Ill.	Charges dismissed (June 2026)	[6]
Suhaib Ahmad Chaudhry, 34, Houston	N.D. Ill.	Charges dismissed (June 2026)	[6]
Jamil Elkoussa, 35, Orland Park, Ill.	N.D. Ill.	Indicted (5 counts wire fraud); no later outcome found in public sources as of Oct. 16, 2026	[1]
Rajesh "Raj" Patel, 52, Schaumburg, Ill.	N.D. Ill.	Indicted Oct. 19, 2026 (5 counts wire fraud); pending (added Oct. 21, 2026)	[8]
Minhaj Feroz Muhammad, 37, Naperville, Ill.	N.D. Ill.	Superseding indictment Dec. 4, 2025; status pending	[1], [7]
Sufyan Feroze, Naperville, Ill.	N.D. Ill.	Superseding indictment Dec. 4, 2025; status pending	[1], [7]
Cher Farley, 52, Earlville, Ill.	N.D. Ill.	Charged by information; no later outcome found in public sources as of Oct. 16, 2026	[1]

An indictment or information is an accusation, not evidence of guilt.

Sources

1. U.S. Attorney's Office, Northern District of Illinois, "National Health Care Fraud Takedown Results in Charges Against 324 Individuals, Including 13 in Northern District of Illinois," July 1, 2025. https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndil/pr/national-health-care-fraud-takedown-results-charges-against-324-individuals-including
2. HHS Office of Inspector General, fugitive profile, "Ruknuddin 'Rick' Charolia." https://oig.hhs.gov/fraud/fugitives/ruknuddin-rick-charolia/
3. HHS Office of Inspector General, fugitive profile, "Faizan Saleem." https://oig.hhs.gov/fraud/fugitives/faizan-saleem/
4. ABC7 Chicago, "Former Loretto Hospital executive pleads not guilty in COVID testing fraud case," Aug. 31, 2026. https://abc7chicago.com/post/former-loretto-hospital-exec-anosh-ahmed-pleads-not-guilty-money-laundering-wire-fraud-kickback-conspiracy-covid-test-case/19771215/
5. ABC7 Chicago, "Chicago lab owner pleads guilty in COVID-19 testing scheme tied to former Loretto Hospital executive," Aug. 6, 2026. https://abc7chicago.com/post/chicago-lab-owner-mohamed-sirajudeen-pleads-guilty-covid-19-testing-scheme-tied-former-loretto-hospital-cfo-anosh-ahmed/19633169/
6. Chicago Sun-Times, "After judge threatens hearing over grand jury misconduct, feds drop charges in case tied to Loretto exec," June 11, 2026. https://chicago.suntimes.com/crime/2026/06/11/broadview-six-grand-jury-misconduct-federal-prosecutors-drop-charges-loretto-hospital-covid-fraud
7. U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs, "Illinois Men Face Additional Charges for Health Care Fraud and Money Laundering Conspiracy," Dec. 5, 2025. https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/illinois-men-face-additional-charges-health-care-fraud-and-money-laundering-conspiracy
8. U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs, "Illinois Laboratory Owner Charged in $66M COVID-19 Testing Fraud Scheme," Oct. 20, 2026. https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/illinois-laboratory-owner-charged-66m-covid-19-testing-fraud-scheme

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