Washington Attorney General files lawsuit against COVID testing company

Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson has filed a lawsuit against an Illinois-based COVID-19 testing company that had 13 locations in Washington.

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Ferguson accuses the Center for COVID Control of improperly handling tests and providing invalid, false, and delayed test results, or sometimes providing no results at all. According to a release from the AG’s office, “the company’s unlawful practices included storing tests in garbage bags for over a week rather than properly refrigerating them, and backdating sample collection dates so that stale samples would still be processed.”

“On multiple levels — there was deception, deceit, lying, you name it, they did it,” he said.

Ferguson says employees reported that the company instructed them to “lie to patients on a daily basis.” So now he’s seeking to ban the business from ever doing business in Washington state.

“The idea that they would, to make a buck, that they would jeopardize, literally, the lives of Washingtonians on this scale. It staggers the mind to be perfectly honest with you,” he said.

Ferguson’s lawsuit was filed in King County Superior Court.

The Center for COVID Control operated about 300 testing sites nationwide, and at least 13 sites in Washington. Those sites were located in Lakewood, Tacoma, University Place, Seattle, Bellevue, Auburn, Lynnwood, Everett, Port Orchard, and Yakima.

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The company has not responded to requests for comments on the lawsuit. It has suspended operations in Washington state as of Jan. 13 or near that date, and all sites still remain closed. The company is also under investigation by the Better Business Bureau of Chicago and Northern Illinois.

The KIRO Newsradio staff contributed to this report.

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