Pakistani Dem donor arrested for $38 MILLION adult daycare Medicaid scam in NYC

A Pakistani-American businessman who has often cozied up to Democrats in New York City has been accused of running an adult daycare scam to defraud Medicaid to the tune of $38 million.

Pervez Siddiqui, 78, was taken into custody on Monday along with seven other alleged co-conspirators in the scam, according to the New York Post. Siddiqui, as well as the others, is alleged to have been running a Medicaid kickback and false-billing fraud operation with two adult daycares in Brooklyn, the APNA Adult Daycare and Ashiana Social Adult Daycare.

The scam allegedly ran from 2019 to 2025, where adults were signed up for daycares who they rarely or never attended and would also get a cut of the Medicaid payments.

“Marketers are going around looking for the Medicaid card. They stop people on the street, at bus stops. They go into doctor’s offices. They go into NYCHA [government housing] where they know people are low income. They ask, ‘do you have a Medicaid card?” a source familiar with the matter told the outlet.

Siddiqui is prolifically known in local political circles and is a regular Democrat donor. He owns 15 pharmacies in New Jersey and has at times paid out over $10,000 to local candidates in New York City races. In December 2025, he had an intimate sit-down meeting with socialist New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

According to the indictment in the case, other co-conspirators included Shazia Bibi, Abdul Aziz, Shair Ali, Zebun Ahmed, Josna Begum, Saira Khatoon, and Atia Shahnaz. The alleged fraudsters would pay cash bribes to New York Medicaid recipients to enroll at one of their two daycare locations.

They also created fake sign-in sheets that exceeded the certificate of occupancy for APNA on certain days, according to the indictment. The fraudsters also used a network of shell companies and would disguise checks to be labeled as "gifts" or "dividends" as well as others in order to conceal the kickback payments, per the indictment.

Some of the payments were even made when those allegedly getting kickbacks were outside the US and even as they left the country to go live with family elsewhere, the Post reported.

Siddiqui's affiliation as board chair with the American Pakistani Public Affairs Committee (APPAC) got him access to some of the top Democrats in state government and was even able to host a fundraiser for New York Attorney General Letitia James in 2022.

Mamdani has previously praised the work of APPAC, which pushed a get-out-the-vote effort for the mayor in his election bid.