USAO, District of Vermont - Press Release

Summary

On January 17, 2012, Mounir R. Khouri, pled guilty in U.S. District Court in Brattleboro, Vermont, to making a false statement on a matter within the jurisdiction of the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) in relation to a scheme to defraud transportation companies employing drivers subject to random drug testing. 

Mr. Khouri, who did business as Mobile Testing Services, Inc. (MTSI), represented himself as a Third Party Administrator, capable of assisting transportation companies in complying with DOT regulations requiring that urine samples be obtained by trained collectors and shipped to licensed labs with a completed Control and Custody Form (CCF) for drug testing.  Test results must then be reviewed by a Medical Review Officer (MRO), a licensed physician trained in substance abuse.

In 2009, Mr. Khouri subverted the role of the MRO by completing the CCFs with MTSI's address, receiving test results which were not reviewed by an MRO and falsely indicating that they had received an MRO review.  In cases of positive results, Mr. Khouri purported to act as the MRO though not qualified to do so.  After Mr. Khouri's contracted drug testing lab stopped testing due to nonpayment from Mr. Khouri, he prepared false CCFs for untested specimens, misrepresenting that the specimens had tested negative and billing his clients for services not provided.

This investigation was conducted with assistance from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Sentencing is scheduled for May 29, 2012.