Another person with ties to Loretto Hospital has been charged with defrauding the federal government of hundreds of millions for COVID-19 tests that were never performed.
Jamil Elkoussa, 35, is the eighth person connected to the West Side hospital accused of engaging in fraud and embezzlement schemes during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Elkoussa, the owner of a medical staffing company, was charged with five counts of wire fraud, according to a new indictment. In 2021, Elkoussa’s company, Meridian Medical Staffing, entered into an agreement with an unnamed laboratory to run COVID-19 tests on samples he claimed to have collected from sites at Loretto and other hospitals in Illinois and Florida.
Elkoussa caused the laboratory to bill $233 million in fraudulent claims resulting in payments of $154 million to the lab, according to the indictment. About $60.3 million was then transferred into Elkoussa’s account, the indictment alleges.
A warrant for Elkoussa’s arrest was issued last week, according to court documents.
The government is also seeking forfeiture of Elkoussa’s $4.9 million property in Miami, along with other properties in Indiana and Illinois.
Last month, Anosh Ahmed, Loretto’s onetime chief financial officer, and three co-defendants were also charged with defrauding the federal government of hundreds of millions of dollars in reimbursements for fake COVID-19 tests.
In total, Ahmed and the others sought reimbursement for more than $894.5 million in claims and received payments in excess of $293 million.
Ahmed and two different co-defendants are also facing federal charges alleging that they plotted to embezzle more than $15 million from the hospital.
Loretto’s former CEO, George Miller, has also been indicted for his role in an embezzlement scheme.