look news india
A huge financial crime has come to light in the healthcare sector of the United States, which has given American federal investigative agencies sleepless nights. An Indian-origin man has been officially declared an international fugitive in connection with a record fraud of US $ 93 million, i.e. more than Rs 780 crore in Indian currency, with the US government’s major public health assistance scheme ‘Medicare’. According to the investigation report of the Office of Inspector General (OIG), under the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the accused has been identified as Mohammad Khadeer Khan. American investigators and intelligence agencies believe that after the issuance of a federal arrest warrant, the accused has fled from the US and is hiding in Hyderabad, the capital of Telangana state of India, to avoid legal consequences, due to which efforts have been intensified under extradition treaties for his extradition and arrest.
According to official court documents and indictment released by the US Department of Health, Khadeer Khan Mohammed operated a well-planned and complex syndicate between August 2023 and October 2024. The accused illegally obtained confidential personally identifying information of legitimate doctors registered with the US medical system, such as their National Provider Identifier (NPI) and state medical license details, without their consent or knowledge. Using this stolen information, he submitted thousands of fraudulent bills for expensive genetic cancer and cardiovascular tests in the names of Medicare beneficiaries. The most shocking thing was that the innocent patients in whose name the claims for these complex lab tests were submitted, had never had any contact or treatment history with those doctors.
During the course of this organized cyber and healthcare fraud, Mohammed submitted approximately US$93 million in credentialed and fabricated genetic test claims to the Medicare portal. By taking advantage of the initial weaknesses of the American payment system, he was completely successful in making direct payments of about US $ 65 million (about Rs 545 crore) into the bank accounts under his control. US investigators found in the financial audit that within a very brief period of just 10 days during the year 2023, the Medicare billing system had automatically issued an amount of approximately $13 million i.e. more than Rs 100 crore against these fake invoices. Health officials clearly clarified that these genetic tests were never prescribed by any doctor, nor were these test reports used in any actual treatment of the patients, but it was merely a well-planned conspiracy to loot billions of rupees from the government treasury.
Considering the seriousness of the case, the US Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have started coordinating with Indian investigative agencies and Interpol so that the exact location of the accused, who is said to be hiding in Hyderabad, can be traced and he can be taken into judicial custody. US authorities have announced that the accused have been charged under federal laws with serious federal charges including wire fraud, healthcare fraud, illegal use of stolen identity and money laundering, which carry stringent penalties of decades in prison and confiscation of all looted assets if found guilty. After this big revelation, America has started strict monitoring of genetic lab billing network so that there can be a complete stop to the illegal looting of American taxpayers’ money by foreign gangs.