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Wednesday, October 21, 2026

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Justice Department · Wednesday, October 21, 2026

Illinois lab owner is charged in a $66.2 million testing scheme

The File desk · Oct. 21, 2026, 6:40 a.m. ET

Confirmed1 primary sources

Status

Confirmed as an indictment announced by the Justice Department on Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2026. The charge is an allegation. Patel has not been convicted in this case.
  • Confirmed
    A federal grand jury in the Northern District of Illinois indicted Rajesh Patel, 52, of Schaumburg, the department said.
  • Confirmed
    The department says he billed for hundreds of thousands of COVID-19 tests that were never performed. That is an allegation.
Rajesh Patel, 52, of Schaumburg, was indicted Monday. Federal prosecutors in Illinois charged a laboratory owner with billing the government for COVID-19 tests they say were never performed. The amount in the charge is $66.2 million. He has not been convicted.1
Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald said, “This defendant allegedly exploited a global crisis for personal gain, fabricating hundreds of thousands of COVID-19 tests – then billing the taxpayer for it.” The word allegedly is the department's. A charge is not a finding.1
Why it matters (Estimate). Estimate. Pandemic testing money was public money, meant for people who needed a test. If the indictment is proved, a lab billed for tests that never happened. Until a court decides, Patel is presumed innocent.1
The Justice Department announced the indictment on Tuesday, Oct. 20. It says a grand jury in the Northern District of Illinois returned it the day before. Patel was the co-owner and chief operating officer of a clinical laboratory, the department says, and he allegedly billed for hundreds of thousands of tests.1
How we know

Notes

  1. 1.Justice Department Office of Public Affairs, “Illinois Laboratory Owner Charged in $66M COVID-19 Testing Fraud Scheme,” Tuesday, October 20, 2026. Re-opened for this edition. https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/illinois-laboratory-owner-charged-66m-covid-19-testing-fraud-scheme “A federal grand jury in the Northern District of Illinois returned an indictment yesterday charging Rajesh “Raj” Patel, 52, of Schaumburg, Illinois, with a $66.2 million fraud scheme in which Patel allegedly billed for hundreds of thousands of COVID-19 tests that were never performed.” Colin M. McDonald: “This defendant allegedly exploited a global crisis for personal gain, fabricating hundreds of thousands of COVID-19 tests – then billing the taxpayer for it.” Charges are allegations; defendants are presumed innocent.

What is still unknown or disputed

  • Whether Patel has been arrested, and any plea.
  • The name of the laboratory, beyond the department's description.

Primary sources

Every claim in this story is drawn from the documents below. If a fetch failed, that is recorded on the card.

  1. Source 1

    Illinois Laboratory Owner Charged in $66M COVID-19 Testing Fraud Scheme

    U.S. Department of Justice · October 20, 2026

    A federal grand jury returned an indictment charging Rajesh Patel, 52, of Schaumburg, with a $66.2 million fraud scheme. The charge is an allegation.

    https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/illinois-laboratory-owner-charged-66m-covid-19-testing-fraud-scheme

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