The Federal Bureau of Investigations is looking into whether one company falsified millions of COVID tests around the country.
The FBI on Saturday raided the corporate headquarters of a nationwide chain of COVID testing sites known as the Center for COVID Control.
The company, which is headquartered in Rolling Meadows, Illinois, received $124 million from the federal government in insurance reimbursements.
“The FBI was conducting court-authorized law enforcement activity in Rolling Meadows yesterday,” FBI spokesperson Siobhan Johnson told USA TODAY. Johnson works out of the FBI field office in Chicago.
She didn’t say what they were searching for, but rumors are rampant on social media that millions of COVID test results were falsified at sites around the country.
Annie Thompson, a spokesperson for the Illinois Attorney General’s Office, said the attorney general “is absolutely committed to protecting residents from those who attempt to profit off of the deadly COVID-19 pandemic.”
Testing sites in the Bay Area and Miami were shut down After multiple news outlets reported questionable test results.
Hundreds of people complained about conflicting test results at the same testing site on the same day in the Bay Area.
At its peak, the company collected more than 80,000 tests per day, according to Yahoo! News.
Meanwhile, Akbar Syed and his wife, Aleya Siyaj, the couple who own the company, flaunted their newfound wealth on social media.
Yahoo News profiled Akbar and Aleya in an article titled “How a wedding photographer and a donut shop owner got millions in a COVID testing operation now under investigation.”
On their now deleted social media pages, Syed, 35, and Aleya, 29, shared photos of two Lamborghinis, a Ferrari Enzo and their lavish $1.36 million mansion in Saint Charles, Il.
The couple’s mansion is seen in this screen capture from a YouTube video.
“Countach added to my collection,” Syed wrote in the caption of photo showing a Lamborgini being offloaded from a truck.
“Oil money?” a user asked.
No, “COVID money,” Syed responded.
The company claimed it uses Doctors Clinical Lab to run its tests. But Doctors Clinical Lab is registered at the same address as Center for COVID Control.
The feds are investigating whether the COVID testing lab even exists.
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