PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum is suing the Center for COVID Control, and its testing partner Doctors Clinical Laboratory, for deceptive marketing and violating the state’s Unlawful Trade Practices Act.
KOIN 6 News previously reported the Center for COVID Control had three pop-up clinics and wooden huts in the Portland metro area, where concerned citizens said they were getting bad results, delayed results or no results at all.
The lawsuit alleges the companies falsely claimed they could give accurate PCR COVID-19 tests results within 24-72 hours of testing.
The attorney general says they produced “shoddy” test results and didn’t have the ability to store and process the thousands of tests they received each day.
“These companies were ill-equipped to scale up as fast as they did,” Rosenblum said in a press release. She added “in less than a year, CCC grew from one testing site in Illinois to become one of the largest testing center operators in the country.”
The lawsuit asks the court to permanently ban the Center for COVID Control and Doctors Clinical Laboratory from offering COVID tests in Oregon and restitution for victims in Oregon.
Rosenblum said “we must make sure they never do business in our state again. The same holds for any other company trying to make a quick buck here from a public health crisis.”
The suit alleges the married couple who owns CCC, Aleya Siyaj and Akbar Syed, funneled millions of dollars from the federal government and insurance companies intended for testing, to themselves.
Rosenblum claims Syed posted pictures of their purchases on social media, including a $1,360,000 mansion and luxury cars.
The suit further alleges the company also failed to teach employees how to collect test specimen, which may have given inaccurate results.
Rosenblum said the Oregon Department of Justice has received 30 complaints about the company since October 2021 and opened a civil investigation.
KOIN 6 News reached out to the Center for COVID Control and has not heard back.