Florida Man Pleads Guilty In $500,000,000 COVID Test Fraud Scheme

A Florida man pleaded guilty for his role in a COVID-era healthcare fraud scheme, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Michigan announced Thursday.

Hasan “Lucas” Seyhun, 45, of Miami, Florida, admitted guilt Wednesday to conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud for his part in documenting more than $500 million in fake claims to government-backed health programs, according to the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) news release.

Seyhun previously served as the chief operating officer of New York-based Fast Lab Technologies (Fast Lab), which provided “no cost” COVID-19 tests during the pandemic that customers could purchase online via the company’s website, the DOJ said, citing court documents.

Fast Lab subsequently used customers’ insurance information to falsely bill for services that were not actually provided, including false claims that antigen tests had been observed by medical professionals, that saliva samples had been collected by medical personnel and that PCR testing had been conducted on those samples, according to the department.

“At a time when Americans were scared for their families and their futures, Hasan Seyhun saw an opportunity to turn a national crisis into his own personal payday,” Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald of the National Fraud Enforcement Division said in a statement in the DOJ’s news release. “Instead of providing the American people with the assistance they needed during a critical time, Seyhun and his colleagues exploited their trust, and lined their pockets from fraudulent insurance claims.”

“The Fraud Division will not let up in its relentless pursuit of COVID era fraudsters,”McDonald continued.

U.S. Attorney Jerome F. Gorgon Jr. said in a statement in the release that Seyhun and his co-conspirators “were so confident in their scheme that they routinely submitted claims for payment before test kits were even delivered to the customer.”

Thursday’s announcement comes amid the Trump administration’s ongoing push to combat healthcare fraud across the U.S. The administration announced Thursday that it has uncovered more than $1.2 billion in suspected fraud across five COVID-related contracts.