By james art 
The owner of a medical laboratory in Los Angeles County was sentenced on Tuesday to nine years behind bars for his role in a $ 369 million fraud scheme, which uses the Covid-19 pandemic and led to fake federal programs.
66 -year -old Lourdes Navarro of Glendale pleaded guilty two years ago on charges of conspiracy for conducting healthcare fraud and wire fraud, according to the US law firm.
Navarro runs the Baldwin Park Clinical Laboratory Inc., also known as a healthcare laboratory she manages with her husband Iran Shams. The laboratory carried out screening tests on Covid-19 for nursing homes and other facilities with vulnerable adult populations, as well as in elementary and secondary schools, prosecutors said.
To increase the restoration of the restoration of the laboratory, Navarro deceitly added claims for respiratory pathogenic tests, although the suppliers and administrators of the facilities do not want or need them, according to its legal basis, filed with the Los Angeles Federal Court.
The couple filed false claims to Medicare, the uninsured HRSA Covid-19 program and an insurance company for unnecessary respiratory pathogenic tests purchased through illegal refusals and bribery, prosecutors said.
In addition to his prison sentence, Navarro was ordered to take $ 11.6 million in funds, which the government had earned from three bank accounts. The total amount, seized and lost by Navaro and Shams, is $ 14.51 million. Navarro was also ordered to pay $ 46.73 million restitution.
The 66 -year -old Shams pleaded guilty in January 2023 for a conspiracy for cheating in healthcare and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
In May 2024, Shams was also sentenced to five years in prison in connection with a legal basis for 2017 in New York for conspiracy for making money laundering, conspiracy for payment and receiving refusals and fraud of the United States by hindering the legal IRS features. Three years of this sentence will come to his sentence in California.
According to the US law firm, the couple paid refusals for copies and test orders and drank profits through shells and purchase of real estate, luxury items and personal goods and services.
Shams was expelled from all participation in Medicare, as he and Navaro were convicted in 2000 for census fraud crimes with Medi-Cal, Grand theft, money laundering and identity theft, according to court documents.
The couple concealed the role of Shams in the laboratory and his previous sentences, prosecutors said.