A Buford lab owner and a Duluth marketer are headed to federal prison after what prosecutors describe as a massive genetic testing hustle that soaked Medicare, Medicaid and private insurers for more than $522 million in bogus bills. Reyad Salahaldeen, 57, of Buford, was sentenced Monday to 151 months behind bars, while 28-year-old Mohamad Mustafa of Duluth received a three-year term. Authorities say many of the tests at the heart of the case were ordered without any treating provider involved, and the lab results were not used to guide patient care.
According to a Justice Department press release, four laboratories tied to the scheme submitted about $522 million in false claims between 2018 and August 2020. Medicare, Medicaid and private insurers ultimately paid roughly $84 million of that total. Investigators say Salahaldeen controlled labs in New Jersey, Georgia and Texas, and that he and Mustafa hid illegal kickbacks behind sham contracts, phony invoices and under-the-table bribes.
How investigators say the racket worked
Federal investigators say a web of recruiters and self-styled marketers fanned out into communities posing as door-to-door salespeople, setting up tables at health fairs and working the phones as telemarketers to coax beneficiaries into handing over insurance information and DNA samples. As reported by WSB Radio, those samples then became the basis for high-priced genetic tests that were pitched as cancer or drug-reaction screenings but that investigators say were medically unnecessary and never used in actual treatment.
Sentences, restitution and co-conspirators
The Justice Department says Salahaldeen was ordered to pay $84,594,165 in restitution and to forfeit more than $3 million in assets. Mustafa was hit with a restitution order of $64,301,569. Prosecutors say 11 co-conspirators have already pleaded guilty and received prison time or other penalties. Among those named in court filings are marketer Travores Wills, who received a 46-month sentence, and nurse practitioner Shauntae Walker, who was sentenced to 24 months. Court documents also allege that Salahaldeen tried to dodge arrest by attempting to cross into Mexico using false identification before agents caught up with him.
Part of a wider federal crackdown
Local prosecutors and federal officials have cast the case as one piece of a broader push to crack down on abuse of taxpayer-funded health programs. FOX 5 Atlanta notes that the prosecution was handled by the Justice Department’s relatively new National Fraud Enforcement Division and was investigated by the FBI along with the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General.
What residents should watch for
Experts and investigators say residents should treat unsolicited offers of free genetic screening as a bright red flag, especially if someone is pressing for insurance information or DNA samples at a health fair table, over the phone or at the front door. As WSB Radio pointed out, anyone who receives suspicious test kits or aggressive sales pitches is urged to contact local law enforcement and report possible fraud to Medicare and to their state’s Medicaid fraud hotline.
