A Texas businessman pleaded guilty in federal court on Thursday to fraudulently obtaining nearly $2 million from Medicare through a scheme involving COVID-19 test kits.
Rashid Naqvi, 52, of the Houston area, admitted in U.S. District Court in St. Louis to one count of wire fraud. According to court documents, Naqvi’s companies, Elite Diagnostics Inc., based in the Eastern District of Missouri, and Astro Diagnostics Inc. in Texas, were used to submit thousands of false claims for COVID-19 test kits between March 2023 and at least October 2023.
Naqvi obtained Medicare numbers and other identifiers from patients without their knowledge or consent by paying $488,435 in kickbacks to co-conspirators. He then used this information to bill Medicare a total of 22,898 times for test kits that were sent to patients who had not requested them. Some claims involved patients who had died before receiving the kits.
Prosecutors stated that neither Naqvi nor his laboratories had any direct relationship with the Medicare beneficiaries listed on the claims. Despite being contacted by some patients who said they did not request the test kits, Naqvi continued the fraudulent activity. When audited by Medicare investigators, he tried to hide his actions by providing false records and concealing evidence of kickbacks.
Naqvi is scheduled for sentencing on April 7, 2026. The charge of wire fraud carries a maximum penalty of up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.
The FBI and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Derek Wiseman is prosecuting.
