SEATTLE – A former co-owner of a defunct medical testing company has been issued an arrest warrant after failing to appear in prison as instructed last week. Richard Reed, 53, was convicted in March 2022 of five federal felony charges related to his scheme to profit from illegal kickbacks in the medical testing industry. In January 2023, he was sentenced to his two years in prison.
Reid has repeatedly petitioned judges to delay his prison reporting date, claiming he contracted COVID-19 and then had a long COVID. Judge John C. Coughenour refused to delay the date past the end of April.
Law enforcement is trying to locate Reed so he can start his prison sentence. Reed lived in Astoria, Oregon, but was unable to determine an address.Law enforcement learned Reed may be carrying a firearm and asks the public to contact the FBI’s Seattle office at 206-622-0460 if they have any information regarding his whereabouts.
The activities of the Bellevue-based Northwest Physicians Laboratory (NWPL) have been the subject of extensive civil and criminal lawsuits. Richard Reid was one of his NWPL owners and Vice President of Sales. Reid helped NWPL get his more than $3.7 million kickback payment and sent urine drug test specimens to two laboratories where he could charge the government for the tests.
The case was investigated by the FBI, the Inspector General’s Office of Health and Human Services (HHS-OIG), and the Defense and Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS).
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant US Attorney Michael Dion.