BAKERSFEILD, Calif. (KGET) — A grand jury for the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s of Eastern District of California, has indicted two people on multiple counts of healthcare fraud and aggravated identity theft for allegedly submitting millions of dollars in fraudulent claims to Medicare.
U.S. Attorney Eric Grant said the two people were indicted on Sept. 17 and have been identified as Nouman Mustafa, 36, of Torrance, and Mohsin Khan, 40, of Bakersfield.
The District Attorney’s Office said Mustafa was arrested on a criminal complaint at the Los Angeles International Airport while trying to board a one-way flight to Pakistan in February 2026. Officials said Khan was arrested at his Bakersfield on Tuesday.
Officials said that according to court records, both Mustafa and Khan are Pakistani nationals with dual United States citizenship. They said the two have previously worked in the U.S. as security guards, warehouse managers and licensed insurance agents.
Law enforcement said the two men created a series of shell companies between January 2025 and January 2026 that were designed to look like legitimate “durable medical equipment” companies, or DME companies.
Officials said in reality, the businesses had no storefronts, warehouses or any locations were legitimate business was conducted.
Through the shell companies, court officials said Mustafa and Khan submitted $3.5 million in fraudulent claims to Medicare.
“They typically relied on one company for only a few weeks or months until its claims began getting denied for suspected fraud, at which point they shifted to the next company,” officials said. “Mustafa and Khan got the information to file the fraudulent claims from their contacts in Pakistan and elsewhere.”
The courts are alleging that the two defendants pocketed about 30% of the proceeds and sent the rest to their contacts.
The Bakersfield Police Department assisted in the investigation, officials said, along with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General.
“If convicted, Mustafa and Khan face up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 for each of the healthcare fraud counts and a mandatory minimum of two years in prison, consecutive to the sentences they receive for any other counts, for each of the aggravated identity theft counts,” court officials said in a statement on Wednesday.
The attorney’s office said any sentences will be determined by the courts after considering all the factors of the case and through federal Sentencing Guidelines. They said the two defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
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