A Raleigh man has pleaded guilty in a health care fraud case where federal prosecutors say his California laboratory received more than $60 million after billing government programs for bogus COVID, flu, and RSV tests.
James Shuford Price III, 59, pleaded guilty in federal court to paying illegal kickbacks for patient referrals to his Los Angeles-based lab and filing a false federal tax return, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina.
Price owned and operated Golden Star Labs, a laboratory facility in Los Angeles. Prosecutors said the lab submitted more than $85 million in false claims to Medi-Cal and more than $11 million in false claims to Medicare between August 2023 and June 2025.
The claims were tied to multi-panel tests for COVID-19, Influenza A and B, and Respiratory Syncytial Virus. Federal officials said the fake claims came from fraudulent test samples and led Medi-Cal and Medicare to pay more than $60 million to the lab.
The Lab Paid Collectors For Test Samples
North Carolina man admits orchestrating health care fraud, kickback scheme that stole $60M from taxpayers
“‘We have a message to fraudsters who steal federal dollars: we will catch, prosecute, and imprison you. Cheaters. Never. Win,’ said Eastern North Carolina US Attorney Ellis…
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) June 25, 2026
The fraud was built around people prosecutors described as “collectors.” Those collectors supplied Golden Star Labs with test specimens from Medicare and Medi-Cal beneficiaries in California and elsewhere.
Under Price’s direction and control, prosecutors said Golden Star Labs paid collectors based at least partly on the volume of samples they provided. Between August 2023 and January 2025, the lab paid more than $17 million to collectors.
Federal law allows Medi-Cal and Medicare to pay private labs for diagnostic testing only when an authorized treatment provider orders medically necessary services. Prosecutors said Golden Star Labs instead paid for referrals, received bulk quantities of bogus samples, and billed government programs for testing tied to those sham specimens.
Stolen Doctor Information Was Used On Claims
The stolen-identity allegation is one of the sharpest details in the case.
Prosecutors said that during the first six months of the operation, about 96% of Golden Star Labs’ Medi-Cal claims were based on fraudulent test authorizations tied to one out-of-state physician whose personal identifiers had been stolen and misused.
In February 2024, Price purported to pause the lab’s testing operations for a month to “clean up” billing issues, according to DOJ. Prosecutors said the lab resumed billing in March 2024 and continued using fraudulent specimens supplied by collectors.
From late March 2024 through January 2025, prosecutors said about 92% of the lab’s Medi-Cal claims were based on phony test authorizations generated from the stolen personal information of five different clinicians.
Fake Contracts Made The Payments Look Lawful
Federal prosecutors said Price directed Golden Star Labs to create written contracts with collectors that listed fixed fees and included language prohibiting payments based on referral volume or value.
DOJ said those contracts were meant to make the arrangement look legal. Prosecutors said the kickback scheme continued anyway, with the lab still paying collectors on a per-specimen basis to induce referrals.
Federal investigators later seized more than $6 million in assets attributable to the fraud.
The case shows how laboratory fraud can move through paperwork that appears routine from the outside: test samples, clinician identifiers, patient information, billing codes, and government reimbursement systems. Prosecutors said the paperwork was built on fraudulent samples and stolen clinician information.
Price Also Admitted Filing A False Tax Return
Price also pleaded guilty to filing a false federal income tax return for the 2022 calendar year.
According to the investigation, he failed to report income from multiple sources, including money prosecutors said he received from victims connected to a prior investment scam.
At sentencing, Price faces a statutory maximum of 13 years in prison, a $500,000 fine, and three years of supervised release. He will also be required to pay restitution to Medi-Cal, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the IRS, and others.
The FBI, IRS Criminal Investigation, HHS-OIG, and the California Department of Health Care Services investigated the case. Sentencing has not yet been reported.