A doctor and several associates who set up drive-thru COVID testing sites across North Texas during the pandemic fraudulently collected $32 million in insurance payments and used the money to buy office buildings, luxury houses, and even ocean-front property in California, an FBI agent said in a court document.
As part of a government forfeiture targeting 14 properties, the agent filed a 97-page document detailing a fraud probe which involves the Heal 360 medical clinics and its founder Dr. Mohammed Mohiuddin. Three of the properties are current or former Heal 360 clinics in Garland, Wylie and Frisco.
Mouhiuddin denies wrongdoing.
Also on the list are commercial buildings in McKinney, Saginaw and Celina; a townhouse in Illinois; four luxurious houses in Anna and Plano; and even a vacant ocean-front lot in California worth $2.6 million. The building in McKinney houses some city offices.
The doctor billed Medicare and private insurance companies — claiming he or other medical professionals personally treated patients — when “in reality, a non-clinician employee just collected a nasal or bucal swab,” the agent wrote.
According to the billing records, Mohiuddin claimed to have personally evaluated 273,884 patients during a 15-month period. That amounts to 580 patients a day, the FBI said. For some days he claimed to have seen patients, he was out of the country, the government said.
Prosecutors filed the civil complaint in December, the same month agents seized Muhiuddin's $56,000 Porsche, according to the website forfeiture.gov.
No criminal charges have been filed and the forfeiture proceedings are civil, but court records make clear an investigation is ongoing.
Mohiuddin's lawyer, Richard Roper of Dallas, also represents the doctor's wife and a few others.
"Our clients look forward to vigorously defending the civil forfeiture allegations and demonstrating that no improper payments were made," the lawyer said in a statement. "Heal 360 LLC and related companies provided quality heath care under difficult circumstances during the COVID-19 Pandemic and should not be penalized for doing what the government asked."
The U.S. Attorney's office in Dallas did not return calls seeking comment.
According to the agent, the investigation began In June 2022 when Medicare auditors flagged possible wrongdoing and a review by the Department of Health and Human Services found “glaring indicators” of fraud.
Mohiuddin was born in India, graduated medical school there and immigrated to the U.S., according to the court records. He became a U.S. citizen and founded Heal 360 in 2018.
Investigators interviewed nine former employees, one of whom said Mohiuddin used "scribes" in India to generate fake medical records for visits that never occurred.
During the height of the pandemic, the doctor and several associates opened drive-thru COVID testing clinics in Allen, Arlington, Dallas, Frisco, Garland, Houston, Irving, Mansfield, McKinney, Mesquite, Plano, Richardson and Wylie, the FBI said.
The FBI said the investigation found the doctor had over 441 "impossible days," defined as when someone bills for more than 24 hours of purported services in the same day. In the top 20 impossible days, he billed for work that would have taken him over 600 hours to complete.
On a single day, November 23, 2021, he claimed he treated or supervised 1,300 patients in 13 locations across North Texas and even one in Houston, the agent said.
"What makes it even more impossible is that on November 23, 2021, Mohiuddin was not present within the United States," the agent wrote, alleging the doctor had traveled overseas.
Here is a list of the properties the government wants to seize:
• 3300 State Highway 78, Garland, TX - Commercial building
• 2806 W. FM 544, Wylie, TX - Single-family home
• 9229 Lebanon Rd, Frisco, TX - Single-family home
• 3833 Honeysuckle Lane, Elgin, IL - Townhouse
• 210 N. Tennessee St, McKinney, TX - Commercial building
• 608 S. Saginaw Blvd, Saginaw, TX - 20,000 square-foot commercial building
• 9981 Slater Creek Rd, Anna, TX - Single-family home
• 5075 Beach Rd, Dana Point, CA - 7,841 square-foot ocean-front lot
• 5528 Palisades Dr, Plano, TX - Single-family home
• 1309 Bradshaw Dr, Plano, TX - Single-family home
• PID 2645906, State Hwy 121, Allen, TX - Commercial property
• 1220 Park Vista Rd, Plano, TX - Single-family home
• PID 2645908, State Hwy 121, Allen, TX - Commercial property
• 520 N. Preston Rd, Celina, TX - Commercial property
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