A company that operated hundreds of pop-up COVID-19 testing sites across the country, including Florida, is facing new legal trouble.
In a lawsuit, the state of Oregon has accused the owners of Illinois-based Center for COVID Control of stealing millions of dollars in federal funds and insurance money in a lawsuit filed Thursday. A lawsuit said the owners boasted about buying a mansion and expensive sports cars.
Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum sued CCC, and its testing partner, Doctors Clinical Laboratory, for deceptively marketing testing services and for violating Oregon’s Unlawful Trade Practices Act.
The lawsuit says Aleya Siyaj and Akbar Ali Syed, the married couple who own CCC, had no prior experience in the medical field or medical testing and had run an ax throwing lounge and a photography studio.
The lawsuit alleges CCC and Doctors Clinical Laboratory falsely told consumers they could provide accurate PCR COVID-19 results within 72 hours, but instead produced questionable test results and lacked proper capacity to store and process the thousands of test specimens they received each day.
CCC said it operated about 300 testing sites across the country, including dozens in Florida.
CCC's trail of legal woes stretching back several months. In January, people at several Florida locations reported receiving untimely results or none at all. Some were sent results before taking the test.
Similar complaints were made in other states, and the company eventually closed all its sites.
At the time, CCC told WJCT news partner News4Jax that increased demand affected its service. The company also said it was responding to questions from several public health and regulatory agencies.
Federal records show the lab has received more than $113 million from the federal government reimbursing them for COVID-19 testing for people without insurance, News4Jax eported.
According to USA Today, CCC was registered in Illinois, Florida and Washington at the end of 2021. In Florida, the company’s registered agent is Fawzia Safdari of Davie.
In January, Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody's office issued a warning about test scams but did not name CCC. The statement cited recent reports of suspicious COVID-19 testing sites popping up in Illinois that "appear legitimate but are designed to steal personal information from unsuspecting test seekers."
The Florida Department of Health, speaking generally, told USA Today that "Floridians are urged to be on the lookout for fraudulent COVID-19 products and practices, especially as it pertains to testing."
In January, the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office filed a lawsuit accusing Center for COVID Control of deceptive and fraudulent practices. Also, Washington state sued CCC, accusing it of improperly handling tests and providing fake results.
