Akbar Syed

Identity and role

Akbar Syed ran the Center for COVID Control, an Illinois company, with his wife, Aleya Siyaj. Arizona's attorney general describes Siyaj as the company's owner and Syed as her husband; Wisconsin's consumer-protection agency treats the two as doing business together as the company. Block Club Chicago reported that Syed represented himself as a leader of the company. From June 2021 the company shared an office in Rolling Meadows, Illinois, with its partner laboratory, Doctors Clinical Laboratory, which processed its tests and billed for them.

Biography / career arc

Oregon's complaint says the couple formed the Center for COVID Control in 2020 and, before that, ran an axe-throwing lounge and a photography studio, with no experience in medicine or medical testing. Block Club added that Syed made wedding videos. The company opened collection sites in partnership with local operators. Wisconsin counted 25 in that state between December 2, 2020 and January 21, 2022. Washington counted at least 13, and put the national total at about 300.

Pandemic-relief / PPP-EIDL role

The business was paid through COVID-test reimbursement: insurers, and the federal government for patients recorded as uninsured. Block Club reported on January 27, 2022 that the federal government had reimbursed Doctors Clinical Laboratory more than $140 million for testing and treatments. Washington's attorney general said the company had reportedly billed the federal government $124 million for tests on "uninsured" patients. The state alleged that employees were told to mark patients as uninsured if they did not give insurance details at the site or if their insurer was missing from the company's form.

The state complaints describe a chain that could not keep up. Former employees told Washington that the company received 8,000 to 10,000 tests a day, and that the owners refused to hire more staff. Washington alleged that samples sat in garbage bags for more than a week instead of being refrigerated, and that collection dates were backdated so stale samples would still be processed. Employees said they were told to "lie to patients on a daily basis." Arizona and Oregon alleged that patients were told their results were inconclusive when their samples had never been tested, and were told to test again.

Their own relief

No PPP or EIDL loan to Syed personally appears in the records cited here. SBA's PPP data list a $17,000 loan to Doctors Clinical Laboratory, Inc., at 1824 W. Wilson in Chicago, approved May 1, 2020 through JPMorgan Chase with four jobs reported, and forgiven. The documents cited here place the lab in Rolling Meadows from June 2021 and do not give an earlier address. The larger public money in this story is the testing reimbursement paid to the lab.

Legal status / controversies

The actions against Syed are civil. Arizona obtained a consent judgment on August 4, 2022 against the company, Siyaj and Syed. It permanently bars all three from performing medical testing services in Arizona and requires the company to pay $20,000 in restitution. Wisconsin's stipulated consent judgment, announced October 26, 2022, makes Siyaj and Syed jointly and individually responsible for $22,500 in forfeitures, surcharges, fees and investigative costs.

Other suits named the business rather than the couple. Washington sued the company on January 31, 2022 under its Consumer Protection Act. Minnesota sued the company and lab in January 2022, and Oregon sued both on April 7, 2022. The outcomes of those three are not in the documents cited here. The United States filed a civil case against the company in the Northern District of Illinois on February 17, 2022 (No. 1:22-cv-00868); the docket shows it terminated on February 26, 2025, with a judgment entered two days later. No criminal charge against Syed appears in the documents cited here. The state allegations that did not end in a judgment remain allegations.

Where they are now (2025–2026)

The Center for COVID Control paused its sites on or about January 13, 2022. The FBI raided its headquarters that month, and on January 27 Block Club reported that Syed and Siyaj had told employees at an hour-long meeting that the company and its lab were shutting down, with one week's pay. The federal civil case closed in February 2025.