The day after Pervez Siddiqui’s adult day care center was raided by the FBI last year, the pharmacist headed to a fundraiser for Mayor Zohran Mamdani at the home of the top advisor on Medicaid affairs in the Pakistani-American community.
Ijaz Ahmad, 50, a Pakistani-American cardiologist and healthcare entrepreneur with a sprawling home in Nassau County, advises his fellow countrymen on setting up community healthcare facilities, which rake in tens of millions in Medicaid cash.
He also introduces them to the city’s most powerful lawmakers at his 10,000 square foot residence in Old Westbury, according to a source in the community.
Ahmad’s proximity to Siddiqui — who now stands accused of playing a part in an alleged $38 million fraud, and another member of the community, Zakia Khan, who has been convicted of $68 million Medicaid fraud — and heavyweight Democratic politicians has raised some eyebrows.
Not least as Ahmad personally donated $16,000 between 2021 and 2025 to embattled New York State Attorney General Letitia James, who earlier this month had federal funding to the state’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU) suspended over lax enforcement and a lack of prosecutions.
His American Pakistani Public Affairs Committee (APPAC) Political Action Committee also raised more than $306,000 in the last year for Democratic candidates, filings show, and has donated to the presidential campaigns of Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Joe Biden in 2020. It has also been a significant donor to New York governor Kathy Hochul.
In December, after Mamdani’s historic victory, Ahmad organized a fundraiser for the new mayor’s transition team through APPAC, which he founded in 2018 to promote South Asian and Muslim political candidates and combat anti-Muslim rhetoric.
For those who have followed Ahmad’s career, the political events are ways to increase his profile in the community.
“He has no personality and he does everything to get noticed. He uses his property and five-star hotels to host these political events,” claimed one source who did not want to be identified.
“He’s like Mickey Mouse. He’s everywhere.”
Federal disclosures show that APPAC also hired a Washington, DC lobbying firm to support their work with political candidates in both the US and Pakistan.
APPAC and Ahmad both did not respond to a request for comment from The Post. Neither party has been accused of any wrongdoing.
Last month Siddiqui, a member of APPAC’s national board of directors, was arrested along with seven alleged co-conspirators over the alleged $38 million Medicaid scam in Brooklyn. Feds allege they ran a large-scale kickback and false-billing scheme through two social adult day care centers: APNA Adult Daycare and Ashiana Social Adult Daycare.
The scam, which allegedly ran from 2019 to December 2025, saw operators bribe seniors in exchange for their Medicaid information, then send inflated bills to the state for services that were never performed, according to prosecutors.
They allege seniors were signed up for daycares they rarely or never attended, then received a cut of the Medicaid payment. Siddiqui and his co-defendants have yet to enter pleas in the case.
New York City alone has 375 social adult day care facilities. They provide meals, social activities and other services, often duplicating services offered at state-run senior centers, but through private companies.
Medicaid paid adult daycare providers $3.35 billion across the country in 2024, and nearly 20 percent of that cash went to the centers in New York, according to public filings.
Although Siddiqui’s alleged fraud rocked the Medicaid community, it was small in comparison to a $68 million con involving other members of the Pakistani-American community.
Last year, Khan pleaded guilty to conspiring to defraud Medicaid at numerous facilities she had run in Brooklyn. She has yet to be sentenced.
Meanwhile, Ahmad hosts high-level meetings between American and Pakistani lawmakers at his home.
In May, the Deputy Prime Minister of Pakistan, Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar, attended Ahmad’s mansion, alongside a full retinue of Pakistani diplomats, including the ambassador to the US. The event was deemed of such great importance it was featured on the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs website.
“On the blessed occasion of Eid, I had the distinct honor of hosting His Excellency Senator Ishaq Dar, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Pakistan, at my home for an extraordinary evening of dialogue, engagement, and patriotism,” Ahmad wrote on Facebook, alongside photos of the statesman surrounded by other dignitaries.
Dar is concurrently acting as Pakistan’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Deputy Prime Minister.
Although such meetings involve political figures, APPAC is not registered as a foreign agent of Pakistan, and is therefore not allowed to oversee any lobbying on behalf of the country or its politicians, so their events are purely social affairs.
The post-election event for Mamdani, who Ahmad and his fellow APPAC members had supported since his first run for State Assembly in 2020, ended up raising nearly $263,000 from 70 guests for the mayor’s transition team.
Guests, including Siddiqui, each gave $3,700, earning Ahmad and Hafeez coveted seats at Mamdani’s inauguration at City Hall this January.
Ahmad has held similar APPAC-sponsored events for New York governor Kathy Hochul, and his Facebook page shows him posing with New Jersey Democratic Senator Cory Booker and Biden.
In 2024, Hochul named Ahmad to the state’s Justice Center Advisory Council, which helps the state “develop policies and programs for people with special needs,” according to the announcement.
Ahmad donated $10,000 to the Friends for Kathy Hochul PAC in 2024 and 2025, according to campaign filings and in March, APPAC hosted an Iftar dinner featuring Hochul as a special guest.
“Speaking on the occasion, Governor Hochul acknowledged the contributions of Muslim Americans and assured that New York State will continue to safeguard their rights while ensuring access to opportunities in key sectors,” according to an article in Urdu News USA.
APPAC also recently endorsed Mamdani’s radical socialist slate for last month’s Democratic primaries, including Claire Valdez and Darializa Avila Chevalier.
“Ijaz has made a career of getting close to politicians, perhaps it’s his way of keeping them onside,” charged another source, who works as a healthcare consultant.
