A 59-year-old Raleigh man, James Shuford Price III, has pleaded guilty to paying illegal kickbacks for referrals to his California-based lab and filing a false federal tax return, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ).
Between August 2023 and June 2025, his lab, Golden Star Labs (GSL), submitted more than $85 million in false claims to Medi-Cal and more than $11 million in false claims to Medicare for multi-panel testing for COVID-19, the flu and RSV.
These fake claims, based on fraudulent test samples, resulted in Medi-Cal and Medicare disbursing more than $60 million to GSL, DOJ said.
Price faces a statutory maximum of 13 years' imprisonment, a $500,000 fine and three years of supervised release, DOJ said. He will also be required to pay restitution to Medi-Cal, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the IRS, and others.
