Ex-Loretto hospital CFO hit with new charges alleging massive $290 million COVID testing fraud scheme
A former top executive of Loretto Hospital on Chicago's West Side has been charged in a massive $290 million fraud scheme that allegedly used stolen patient data to bill nearly a billion dollars worth of bogus COVID-19 tests for purportedly uninsured patients at the height of the pandemic.
The 48-page indictment unsealed in U.S. District Court on Tuesday marked the latest — and largest — fraud scheme involving the small West Side safety-net hospital that became a lighting rod of controversy during the coronavirus pandemic for administering vaccinations to connected insiders and paying millions in contracts to companies with close ties to facility administrators.
Anosh Ahmed, who was previously indicted in a related scheme to embezzle $15 million from Loretto itself, was charged in the new 24-count indictment with wire fraud, illegal kickbacks and other financial crimes.
Also charged were Mohamed Sirajudeen, 53, an Ahmed associate who operated a clinic called Chicago Polyclinic LLC, as well as Mahmood Sami Khan, 36, and Suhaib Ahmad Chaudhry, 34, both former employees of Anosh Inc., a Houston-area company Ahmed formed after leaving Loretto in 2021.
Ahmed, 41, fled to Dubai before he was first charged last year and has not returned, court records show. Over the past year, he's been using a public relations firm to produce news releases calling himself a 'billionaire agripreneur' dedicated to philanthropic causes, including donating millions of pounds of food to the needy in Lebanon.
His lawyer, Dan Webb, could not immediately be reached.
Chaudhry and Khan were arrested in the Houston area Tuesday and were expected to appear in court there on Wednesday, court records show. Sirajudeen has arranged to surrender through his attorney. It was not clear if any of the three defendants had hired attorneys.
According to the indictment, from April 2021 to June 2022, Ahmed and his co-conspirators used laboratories they opened in Illinois and Texas to submit false claims to the Health Resources and Services Administration for COVID testing of specimens 'purportedly collected from uninsured individuals, knowing that such testing had not occurred.'
In all, the false claims sought reimbursement for nearly $895 million, of which more than $293 million was actually paid, the indictment stated.
To further the scheme, after Ahmed left Loretto Hospital in April 2021, he had a hospital executive identified as Individual F to obtain a spreadsheet containing personal identifiers — including names, dates of birth, gender and addresses — collected from more than 150,000 Loretto patient visits between July 2014 and June 2020, the indictment alleged.
Similar personal information was collected from patients who ordered COVID-19 antigen at-home test kits from an internet site run by Khan, as well as individuals who provided it 'for the purpose of receiving further information about COVID-19,' the indictment stated.
The indictment alleged Ahmed used a variety of methods to try to conceal the scheme, including by having Individual F create a new email address with Loretto's domain name to 'create the false appearance that Ahmed was working on behalf of (Loretto)' and that the hospital was reporting test results to patients, the indictment alleged.
Ahmed also created a number of false and backdated invoices to minimize his involvement with the various labs, communicated in encrypted messaging apps and ordered co-schemers to replace phones and destroy communications and other documents relating to the scheme, the indictment stated.
The indictment sought forfeiture in more than $100 million in cash and securities in various accounts controlled by Ahmed, as well as seizure of four luxury properties in Texas, and vehicles including two Rolls-Royces, a Lamborghini Huracan and a Mercedes Benz.
The indictment is the latest in a federal investigation initiated after Loretto came under fire for improperly doling out COVID-19 vaccinations soon after the shots became available. In 2021, following reporting by Block Club Chicago and WBEZ, Loretto admitted it had improperly vaccinated workers at Trump Tower in downtown Chicago and had also improperly given shots to Cook County judges at a time when the vaccines were still scarce.
Ahmed resigned from his position as chief financial officer in 2021 after the hospital's board voted to terminate him.
Last year, Ahmed was charged in a separate embezzlement case along with former Loretto CEO George Miller; Heather Bergdahl, a friend of Ahmed's from Houston whom he hired in 2020 to serve as Loretto's chief transformation officer; and Sameer Suhail, 47, of Chicago, a doctor and medical supply company owner accused of serving as a front for millions of dollars in bogus payments by Loretto for invoices that were never fulfilled.
Miller, who left the hospital amid the fallout in 2022, is cooperating and is expected to plead guilty.
Suhail is also believed to be living in Dubai, where he traveled before his indictment. Bergdahl, meanwhile, was arrested after boarding a private jet in Houston that was bound for Dubai. She has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial.
jmeisner@chicagotribune.com
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