WASHINGTON — A North Carolina man pleaded guilty Wednesday to defrauding Medicare out of $60 million through a kickback scheme involving bogus tests for COVID-19, flu and other viruses.
James Shuford Price III copped to filing a false tax return and paying off collectors of sham test specimens after pilfering funds from Medicare and the California Medical Assistance Program (Medi-Cal) to pay for the tests at his lab in the Golden State.
The 59-year-old Raleigh native faces up to 13 years in prison and a $500,000 fine when sentenced, along with three years of supervised release.
Price owned Los Angeles-based Golden Star Labs and submitted $11 million in false claims to Medicare and $85 million in false claims to Medi-Cal for SARS-CoV-2, Influenza A and B, and Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) tests between August 2023 and June 2025.
Medicare and Medi-Cal responded by forking over more than $60 million to Golden Star. The FBI and US Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of North Carolina later seized $6 million in assets.
“Stealing taxpayer dollars that should be used to help legitimate beneficiaries is lowdown, dirty pool. 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 Boyle.
Price worked with so-called “collectors” in California and other states who were paid more than $17 million to supply samples between August 2023 and January 2025.
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