A Glendale woman has been sentenced to a nine-year prison term after pleading guilty in a healthcare fraud scheme that capitalized on the COVID-19 pandemic. The 66-year-old Lourdes Navarro, alongside her co-conspirator Imran Shams, was involved in submitting false claims for respiratory tests that were neither medically necessary nor ordered by healthcare providers.
Navarro and Shams controlled Matias Clinical Laboratory, which operated as the Health Care Providers Laboratory (HCPL). Their fraud scheme revolved around collecting nasal swab specimens under the guise of COVID-19 screening, targeting numerous vulnerable communities including nursing home residents and school staff. Despite the tests being unnecessary for asymptomatic individuals, HCPL billed for expensive respiratory pathogen panel (RPP) tests alongside COVID-19 tests. The Department of Justice reported that Navarro, Shams, and their facility billed around $369 million for the RPP tests, successfully defrauding insurance programs out of approximately $46.7 million.
In addition to her prison sentence, Navarro was ordered to forfeit over $11.6 million seized from three bank accounts and to pay restitution totaling almost $46.7 million. Her co-defendant Shams, has already faced the music with a 10-year sentence handed down last year for his part in the conspiracy and other previous charges. Trial Attorneys Gary A. Winters and Raymond E. Beckering III prosecuted the case, with additional support from Assistant U.S. Attorney Maxwell Coll handling the financial penalties, according to a Justice Department announcement.
The case was investigated by the FBI and HHS-OIG, marking yet another instance of pandemic-related fraud that has been targeted by the Justice Department's COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force. This task force has been instrumental in coordinating responses to pandemic fraud, using a partnership model with various government agencies to enhance the detection and prosecution of fraudulent activities linked to COVID-19 relief efforts, the Justice Department's announcement detailed.
