Madigan obtains judgment against Anita Mahajan for defrauding state of Illinois

Attorney General Lisa Madigan today obtained a judgment against a Chicago contractor accused of billing the state of Illinois for drug tests it never performed. The agreed order filed in Cook County Circuit Court requires Anita Mahajan and her Chicago company, K.K. Bio-Science, Inc., to pay more than $393,000 in restitution. In addition, the settlement permanently prohibits Mahajan from contracting with the state of Illinois.

“This company blatantly defrauded the state and reaped hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars by submitting bills for work that it never performed,” Madigan said.

The judgment is the result of Madigan’s civil lawsuit filed against K.K. Bio-Science, Inc. and its president Mahajan in March 2009 alleging that the defendants knowingly billed the state from at least January 2004 until November 2006 for drug tests they failed to perform on behalf of the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) in child custody cases.

In 1997, the state awarded K.K. Bio-Science a no-bid contract to conduct DCFS drug testing. By 2003, the number of DCFS clients required to submit to drug testing at K.K. Bio-Science had dropped significantly. The company, however, allegedly continued to bill the state at similar historical rates on a monthly basis for several years.

State investigators discovered the fraudulent billing in January 2007, at which time DCFS terminated its contract with K.K Bio-Science. The company was involuntarily dissolved in December of that year.

Bureau Chief Carl Bergetz and Assistant Attorney General Malini Rao handled the case for Attorney General Madigan’s Special Litigation Bureau.