Date: June 18, 2024 Contact: newsroom@ci.irs.gov Peoria, IL — A grand jury today indicted a Morton, Illinois man, Aaron Rossi (“Rossi”), on six counts of healthcare fraud, one count of mail fraud, and four counts of wire fraud for allegedly defrauding the State of Illinois and public and private health insurance companies out of hundreds of thousands of dollars during the COVID-19 pandemic. The indictment alleges that Reditus Laboratories, LLC (“Reditus”), located in Pekin, Illinois, was a full-service pathology laboratory which offered various testing services for patients and clients. As part of those services, Reditus had the capability to run PCR tests for infectious diseases, including the COVID-19 virus. After the COVID pandemic reached the United States in early 2020, Rossi and Reditus began processing COVID-19 PCR tests which were paid for with both public and private health insurance programs, such as Medicare, Medicaid, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois, Healthlink, and the Health Resources & Services Administration's Uninsured Program. Beginning as early as October 2020, and continuing to at least November 2021, Rossi established policies and procedures at Reditus that directly benefitted himself financially and defrauded healthcare providers. Services provided were mischaracterized in order to receive payment for services that were not actually rendered. This resulted in the six counts of healthcare fraud alleged in the indictment. In addition, Rossi and Reditus had a contract with the State of Illinois to provide COVID-19 PCR testing. The contract, signed by Rossi as CEO for Reditus, was a flat-rate contract. Reditus could only invoice the State for the difference between what a patient’s healthcare coverage paid and the agreed-upon flat rate arranged with the State. Rossi, however, developed a scheme to bill both the healthcare providers and the State, resulting in Reditus fraudulently receiving double payments for the same COVID-19 PCR tests, one from the State and one from another health insurance provider. This conduct was the basis for the one mail fraud count and the four wire fraud counts alleged in the indictment. Rossi previously plead guilty to charges of filing false federal tax returns and taking funds from his former employer, Central Illinois Orthopedic Surgery in Bloomington on February 6, 2024. In that case, Rossi admitted to taking funds without the knowledge or permission of his employer and fraudulently purchasing personal items that he had delivered to his home. Due to multiple bond violations, Rossi has been in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service since September 2023, and remains in custody on that case pending his sentencing—currently schedule for July 2, 2024. Today’s indictment alleges new offenses and conduct that are separate from his initial case and which took place after the conduct in his first case had concluded. If convicted, on the new offenses, Rossi faces maximum statutory penalties of up to 10 years imprisonment for each of the healthcare fraud charges, and up to 20 years imprisonment for each of the mail fraud and wire fraud charges. Each of the 11 charges could also incur a $250,000 fine. Imprisonment could be followed by 3 years of supervised release for each count. The case investigation was conducted by the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation (IRS CI); the United States Postal Inspection Service; the Federal Bureau of Investigation—Springfield Division; the Department of Labor—Employee Benefit Security Administration; Office of Personnel Management—Office of Inspector General; and Department of Health and Human Services—Office of Inspector General. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Douglas F. McMeyer and Tanner K. Jacobs represent the government in the prosecution. Members of the public are reminded that an indictment is merely an accusation; the defendant is presumed innocent unless proven guilty. CI is the criminal investigative arm of the IRS, responsible for conducting financial crime investigations, including tax fraud, narcotics trafficking, money-laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, identity theft and more. CI special agents are the only federal law enforcement agents with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code, obtaining a more than a 90 percent federal conviction rate. The agency has 20 field offices located across the U.S. and 12 attaché posts abroad.
