On Sept. 17, a grand jury indicted Nouman Mustafa, 36, of Torrance, and Mohsin Khan, 40, of Bakersfield, on multiple counts of health care fraud and aggravated identity theft for submitting millions of dollars in fraudulent claims for durable medical equipment to Medicare, U.S. Attorney Eric Grant announced today.

On Feb. 11, 2026, Mustafa was arrested on a criminal complaint at the Los Angeles International Airport while trying to board a one-way flight to Pakistan. Khan was arrested at his home in Bakersfield and will make his initial court appearance today.

According to court records, Mustafa and Khan are Pakistani nationals with dual United States citizenship who have worked in the United States as security guards, warehouse managers, and licensed insurance agents.

From January 2025 through January 2026, they created a series of shell companies designed to look like legitimate durable medical equipment (DME) companies. In reality, none of the companies had physical storefronts, warehouses, or any locations where legitimate business could have been conducted. Mustafa and Khan then used these companies to quickly submit more than $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.

Mustafa and Khan got the information to file the fraudulent claims from their contacts in Pakistan and elsewhere. This information included details about real Medicare beneficiaries and their doctors. The defendants kept approximately 30% of the proceeds and sent the remainder back to their contacts.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General conducted the investigation with assistance from the Bakersfield Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Arelis Clemente and Joseph Barton are prosecuting the case.

If convicted, Mustafa and Khan face up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 for each of the health care 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. Any sentence, however, would be determined at the discretion of the court after consideration of any applicable statutory factors and the federal Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account a number of variables. The charges are only allegations; the defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.