Category: Uncategorized

FBI raids Covid testing company in fraud probe

The Center for Covid Control is accused of providing ‘deceptive’ test results

The Federal Bureau of Investigation conducted a search of a Covid-19 testing company which has been accused of providing “inaccurate and deceptive” results and enriching its owners.

The Illinois headquarters of the Center for Covid Control – which has received more than $124 million from the US government for its Doctors Clinical Lab – was searched by federal agents on Saturday just days after the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office filed a lawsuit accusing the company of providing bogus test results.

FBI Chicago spokesperson Siobhan Johnson told USA Today that the Bureau “was conducting court-authorized law enforcement activity” at the company’s HQ in Rolling Meadows, while a spokesperson for the Illinois Attorney General’s Office told the newspaper that it was “absolutely committed to protecting residents from those who attempt to profit off of the deadly COVID-19 pandemic.”

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Shocking scale of Covid relief fraud revealed

Both the FBI and the Illinois Attorney General’s Office refused to elaborate on what “unlawful conduct” the company has been accused of engaging in, however the Minnesotan lawsuit alleged it had “fraudulently reported negative test results to consumers that never completed COVID-19 tests.”

Some customers complained that the Center for Covid Control never sent them their results, while others claimed they received a negative test result before they had even been tested.

In a statement on its website, Thursday, the Center for Covid Control announced that all of its locations would be closed until further notice.

“CCC is using this operational pause to train additional staff on sample collection and handling, customer service and communications best practices, as well as compliance with regulatory guidelines,” the statement read. “CCC will provide an update on reopening plans when appropriate.”

The owners of the company, 35-year-old Akbar Ali Syed and 29-year-old Aleya Siyaj, found themselves in even more hot water recently after Syed posted videos of luxury cars and a $1.36 million mansion to his now-removed TikTok account.

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Pandemic made rich richer, poor poorer – study

Syed and Siyaj purchased the mansion – which features a water fountain, white pillars, a private road with gate, and crystal chandeliers – in November and the Daily Mail suggested that the couple spent millions of dollars on luxury vehicles alone.

Syed allegedly made several incriminating statements on his deleted TikTok account. After one user asked Syed whether he had paid for a Lamborghini spotted in a video using “oil money,” Syed responded, “Not even sure what means… but no covid money.”

In a comment below a video of him bidding on another Lamborghini, Syed allegedly wrote, “My axe throwing lounges were forced shut by the gov due to covid… so I opened up a covid testing site than [sic] bought the lab and now I have 65 sites.”

Chinese air force alarms Taiwan with massive flyby

Taiwan scrambled its own jets and activated air defenses

Taiwanese military scrambled fighter jets and prepared air defense missile systems after a group of 39 Chinese planes, including a bomber, were allegedly spotted entering its Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ).

Taiwan’s Ministry of Defense claimed that dozens of Chinese planes had crossed its southwest ADIZ, prompting the island to activate its military resources “to monitor” their activities.

The planes allegedly included dozens of J-10 and J-16 fighter jets, and a Xian H-6 bomber, as well as several Y-8 and Y-9 military transport aircraft.

pic.twitter.com/aUoSWlwC1g

— 國防部 Ministry of National Defense, R.O.C. 🇹🇼 (@MoNDefense) January 23, 2022

China’s latest flyby took place the same day that a group of US and allied warships sailed into the Philippine Sea on Sunday. It was China’s largest flyby since last October, when it flew 56 aircraft near Taiwan in one day in several waves. 

Freedom at its finest! Nothing reaffirms our commitment to a #FreeandOpenIndoPacific like 2 Carrier Strike Groups, 2 Amphibious Ready Groups sailing alongside our close friends from the Japan Maritime Self Defense Force. VADM Karl Thomas, Commander, U.S. 7th Fleet@jmsdf_pao_eng pic.twitter.com/mQFVrUW2aJ

— 7th Fleet (@US7thFleet) January 23, 2022

Though Chinese officials have not yet commented on the incident, ambassador Deng Xijun said during a similar incident last year that such demonstrations were intended to send a “strong warning to the Taiwan secessionists & their foreign supporters.”

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The US cannot defend Taiwan, and China knows it

Taipei considers Taiwan to be an independent country since the losing side of the Chinese Civil War fled there in 1949. The air force of the People’s Republic of China has been flying sorties into Taiwan’s Air Defense Identification Zone for the past several years, as a means of sending a signal to Taipei that China does not recognize its claims of independence and, as such, any notion of an ADIZ is null and void.