Latest news with #LorettoHospital
CBS News
09-08-2025
- CBS News
2 dead, 8 hurt in Chicago weekend shootings, police say
At least two people are dead and eight others were hurt in weekend shootings across Chicago as of Saturday. The ages of the victims range from 16 to 39. In the first shooting of the weekend, a 26-year-old man was in the parking lot in the 0-100 block of West 79th Street, just before 7 p.m., when he was approached by two unknown gunmen who fired shots. The victim was shot in the head and shoulder and was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. Later in the evening, a 35-year-old man was shot multiple times about the body just before 8:30 p.m. in the 5500 block of West Adams Street. The victim self-transported to Loretto Hospital in critical condition. The victim was unable to provide details of the incident. A weapon was recovered on the scene. Police said detectives are speaking with a person of interest. Two other men, 33 and 35, were also shot around 9:46 p.m. in the 4600 block of Lake Street. Police said they were inside a vehicle when a dark sedan pulled up and someone from inside shot at them. Both were taken to Mt. Sinai Hospital with multiple gunshot wounds. The 35-year-old was in critical condition, and the 33-year-old was in serious condition. In other shootings from 5 p.m. Friday to 5 a.m. Monday: Unless otherwise noted, no arrests were made in either incident. CBS News Chicago will continue to update throughout the weekend.
Chicago Tribune
01-07-2025
- Chicago Tribune
Alleged co-conspirator linked to Loretto Hospital scandal pleads not guilty
The owner of two allegedly fraudulent COVID-19 testing labs linked to a disgraced ex-executive of Loretto Hospital pleaded not guilty Tuesday to charges he was part of a sprawling fraud scheme that siphoned more than $290 million in federal funds for testing that never occurred. Mahmood Sami Khan, 36, appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Daniel McLaughlin in a 13th-floor courtroom at Dirksen Federal Courthouse Tuesday afternoon about two weeks after he was arrested in Texas on charges of wire fraud and money laundering. At the arraignment, McLaughlin released Khan from electronic monitoring and slightly expanded his travel limitations, among other changes to provisions first ordered after his June 17 arrest. Prosecutors and Khan's attorney had previously argued in court records over whether Khan intended to keep working for Anosh Ahmed, the previously indicted ex-CFO of Austin safety-net hospital Loretto Hospital and the lead defendant in a recently unsealed case against Khan and two other men. Prosecutors said in court documents that Ahmed, who fled to Dubai before he was charged, appears to have helped others involved in the cases against him leave the country and asked that McLaughlin keep Khan on electronic monitoring to prevent his potential escape. McLaughlin said he was not it was clear that Khan had 'significant' ties in the U.S. and noted that he had known about the investigation for some time but not fled. 'I know there was a private jet and this and that, but my understanding is that he wasn't on that jet,' McLaughlin said. Prosecutors had accused Khan in a June 30 filing of angling to keep in touch with his alleged co-conspirators and specifically that he intended to continue working for Ahmed. They alleged Ahmed, who fled to Dubai before he was charged in 2024, has helped others implicated in the investigation leave the country. 'Ahmed's conduct shows he is able and willing to pay for his co-schemers to flee to Dubai, to prevent them from having any opportunity to be a witness against Ahmed,' the filing stated. 'If Khan continues to have contact with Ahmed, his risk of flight is heightened by having the available resources and opportunities.' But Assistant U.S. Attorney Sheri Mecklenburg said Tuesday that she and Khan's attorney Gabrielle Sansonetti had clarified before the hearing that Khan was in fact willing to forego contact with a previously drafted list of witnesses and alleged co-defendants and not work for Ahmed. Khan, whose wife, two sisters and mother were present in the first row of the courtroom along with several pieces of luggage, left the hearing barred from contact with witnesses and alleged co-defendants as well as any employment with Ahmed or any entities he owns or manages. Prosecutors allege Khan owned and operated a pair of labs in Texas between December 2021 and June 2022 as part of a company that Ahmed used to submit false reimbursement claims for COVID-19 testing on samples 'purportedly collected from uninsured individuals, knowing that such testing had not occurred.' If convicted of the charges, Khan could face what amounts to the rest of his life in prison and up to about $605 million in penalties for five counts of wire fraud and money laundering, according to court records. Prosecutors allege in a recently unsealed indictment that Khan, Ahmed and co-defendants Mohamed Sirajudeen, 53, and Suhaib Ahmad Chaudhry, 34 used laboratories in Illinois and Texas to submit nearly $900 million in false claims to the government from April 2021 to June 2022. They were reimbursed for $293,221,468, according to the indictment. Ahmed was charged in 2024 with embezzling $15 million from Loretto Hospital, an Austin safety-net hospital from which he resigned in 2021 amid a maelstrom of controversy around improperly doling out COVID-19 vaccinations at the height of the pandemic. A motion filed June 29 stated that besides being placed on electronic monitoring, Khan was also barred from working for any firm that received federal funding and required to turn over his bank records, not incur new debt and submit to regular credit checks as conditions of his bail. McLaughlin on Tuesday afternoon struck the provision that Khan could not work for a company that received federal money, saying he wasn't sure how Khan would be able to determine that while searching for a job. Khan is also close to his family in Texas and helps to care for his disabled sister, which makes him unlikely to pose a flight risk before trial, Sansonetti argued. The motion asks that McLaughlin authorize a relative as a third-party custodian to Khan while the case makes its way to trial.
Chicago Tribune
30-06-2025
- Chicago Tribune
Florida man with ties to Loretto Hospital indicted in massive $233 million COVID fraud scheme
A Florida man with ties to Loretto Hospital on Chicago's West Side has been charged in a massive conspiracy to fraudulently bill the federal government for more than $200 million in COVID-19 tests that were actually never performed. Jamil Elkoussa, 35, who currently resides in Orlando, is the latest to be charged in a 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. The indictment made public Monday charges Elkoussa with five counts of wire fraud and seeks forfeiture of a $4.9 million home in Miami, as well as properties in Alsip, Burr Ridge, Homer Glen and South Holland. A lawyer for Elkoussa could not immediately be reached. An arrest warrant was issued for Elkoussa last week, records show. It was not immediately clear if he was in custody, and no court dates had been entered on the docket as of Monday. According to the charges, Elkoussa was head of a company called Meridian Medical Staffing in 2022 when he contracted with Individual A, the owner of Laboratory A in Hillside, and others to provide specimens purportedly collected from patients for COVID-19 'PCR' tests. Elkoussa claimed that many of the tests were collected at Loretto, as well as another Chicago-area hospital and other sites in Florida, the indictment alleged. His co-conspirators then used the phony data provided by Elkoussa to submit bills to the Health Resources and Services Administration, which at the time provided reimbursement for tests on uninsured patients, according to the indictment. In all, Elkoussa caused more than $233 million to be fraudulently billed to the HSRA, resulting in more than $150 million in taxpayer-funded payments to Laboratory A, according to the charges. The lab then kicked tens of millions of dollars in the ill-gotten proceeds back to Meridian, the charges alleged. Elkoussa is the 8th person to be charged so far in the wide-ranging 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. Also charged are former Loretto CEO George Miller, ex-Loretto executives Anosh Ahmed and Heather Bergdahl, and associates Sameer Suhail, Mohamed Sirajudeen, Mahmood Sami Khan, and Suhaib Ahmad Chaudhry. Ahmed and Suhail fled to Dubai before they were charged last year and have not returned, court records show. Miller and Bergdahl have pleaded not guilty. Arraignments for the others are pending.
Chicago Tribune
24-06-2025
- Business
- Chicago Tribune
Indicted on fraud charges, ex-Loretto Hospital exec wages bizarre PR campaign from Dubai
The press release over the weekend announcing the latest project by Dr. Anosh Ahmed touted him as a Chicago-based entrepreneur determined to break the cycle of poverty by bringing high-tech jobs to the city's historically underserved West Side. In a bio attached to the release, Ahmed is described as the former chief operating officer of an unnamed hospital, who expanded services and 'led initiatives in patient care and access' that boosted health care 'for those most in need.' There were, however, a few things the news release failed to cover — chief among them that Ahmed has been indicted in one of largest Chicago-area health care fraud cases in recent memory. Ahmed, a former executive at Loretto Hospital in the city's Austin neighborhood, was first hit with embezzlement charges last year alleging he and other hospital executives, including the then-CEO, stole more than $15 million from the small, safety net facility through a fraudulent billing scheme. Last week, prosecutors filed a new indictment alleging that after he left Loretto in 2021, Ahmed used his connections there to orchestrate a massive conspiracy to collect nearly $300 million for COVID-19 tests that were never performed. And while the news release, dated Sunday, claimed Ahmed is still based in Chicago, he actually fled to Dubai before the first charges were filed and has not returned to answer to either case. A warrant for his arrest remained active as of this week, court records show. The news release was the latest in a strange public relations campaign that appears aimed at rebuilding Ahmed's image and possibly courting the attention of President Donald Trump, who has recently granted executive clemency in a number of notable Chicago-area cases, from Gangster Disciples boss Larry Hoover to former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich. Distributed by Globe Newswire, an international online public relations service, the release included a media contact identified as Meghan Trump. The phone number listed turned out to be the main switchboard for the Trump International Hotel in Chicago, where Ahmed used to own a condo. A spokeswoman for the hotel said Monday there was no Meghan Trump who works there and she was unaware that someone had listed the hotel's number on a press release about an unrelated real estate project. Ahmed's lawyers could not immediately be reached for comment. The apparently phony media contact was hardly Trump-related overture in the release. The very first paragraph of the document describes Ahmed as a 'Republican leader,' and said he is 'progressing with plans to transform a vacant warehouse on Chicago's West Side into a cryptocurrency and blockchain innovation hub,' in coordination with the Trump administration's 'latest pro-crypto policy direction.' 'The project is designed to stimulate job creation, education, and long-term economic development in an area that has faced decades of underinvestment,' the release stated. 'This isn't just about crypto—it's about building a future economy right here in our community. We're bringing opportunity where it's long been denied.' The release does not specify the location of the purported 100,000-square-foot warehouse, saying only that it has been vacant for more than a decade. Peter Strazzabosco, the deputy commissioner of the city's Planning and Development Department, told the Tribune on Tuesday that department staff was 'not aware of this proposed project.' Other flattering news releases put out over the past year describe Ahmed as a 'billionaire agripreneur' based in Dubai and dedicated to philanthropic causes, including donating millions of pounds of food to the needy in Lebanon. 'I hope to inspire families and professionals worldwide to create a legacy that makes positive ripples in the world at large,' Ahmed was quoted as saying on his web site. The marketing blitz seems right in the wheelhouse for Ahmed, a native of Pakistan and consummate self-promoter who during the early days of the pandemic was hailed for his work on the front lines of the city's testing and vaccination efforts. That spotlight intensified in March 2021, after the hospital was chosen by the city as the first vaccination site in Chicago and hosted Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker as he signed a health care bill into law. But scandal soon erupted after officials at Loretto, including Ahmed, were accused of 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 and also improperly gave shots to Cook County judges at a time when the vaccines were still scarce. Ahmed, the then-chief operating officer of Loretto, also reportedly posed for photos with a smiling Eric Trump and sent text messages bragging that he had vaccinated the president's son, whom he touted as a 'cool guy.' Ahmed resigned from his position in 2021 after the hospital's board voted to terminate him. After leaving Loretto, Ahmed moved back to his hometown of Houston, where he started Anosh Inc., a global real estate and 'crypto' investment firm that claims to have more than $1.5 billion in assets around the world, according to court and online records. Its sister foundation sponsors charitable programs like Thanksgiving turkey giveaways and school supply drives for needy children, records show. Behind the veneer of philanthropy, however, prosecutors allege most of Ahmed's professional life was built on fraud. According to a superseding indictment filed last year, from 2018 to 2022, Ahmed and his associates, including then-Loretto CEO George Miller, Ahmed's good friend Sameer Suhail, and Heather Bergdahl, a former Loretto executive, caused the cash-strapped hospital to issue more than $15 million in payments to vendor companies for purported goods and services that they knew had not been provided. Many of the phony vendor companies were created by Ahmed under various names to conceal their association with the fraudulent payments, which were sent to bank accounts the defendants controlled, the indictment stated. Last week, Ahmed was charged in a new 24-count indictment with wire fraud, illegal kickbacks and other financial crimes. According to the new 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 his friend and co-defendant, Mahmood Sami 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. While the indictment does not identify Individual F, information included in court records show it is Bergdahl. Prosecutors alleged Ahmed funded a lavish lifestyle with the fraud proceeds. The most recent 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. 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. Two of Ahmed's co-defendants in the case filed last week, Khan and Suhaib Ahmad Chaudhry, were arrested in Houston and released on bond pending appearances in U.S. District Court in Chicago, court records show. The third, Mohamed Sirajudeen, agreed to turn himself in. Cook County real estate records show Ahmed in 2022 had used his 43rd-floor condo at Trump Tower as collateral for a $14 million loan from Sirajudeen. Ahmed later sold the unit to Sirajudeen, who sold it again in December to another Chicago doctor for $2 million, records show. As the cases go forward, t's unclear if Ahmed will ever return to the U.S. to face the charges. While there is no formal extradition treaty between the U.S. and United Arab Emirates, the country's have coordinated on extradition matters on a case-by-case basis in the past. A spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office had no comment Monday on any possible negotiations to get Ahmed back to Chicago.
CBS News
18-06-2025
- CBS News
Former CEO of Chicago's Loretto Hospital accused of nearly $300 million via COVID testing scheme
A former executive at Chicago's Loretto Hospital is charged with stealing $290 million through a COVID testing scheme. Prosecutors said Anosh Ahmed, the former chief executive officer and chief financial officer of the West Side hospital, was among a group that submitted nearly $900 million of false claims for COVID testing — and collected payments totaling $290 million. In November 2024, Ahmed was also among three people indicted on charges of scheming to embezzle more than $15 million from Loretto Hospital. A federal grand jury has been investigating Loretto's COVID-19 vaccination program, after the hospital admitted to giving hundreds of COVID shots to people who were not yet eligible to get them. Ahmed resigned from Loretto in March 2021, after the hospital had arranged COVID-19 vaccinations for hundreds of well-connected people who were not yet eligible for the shots at a time when vaccinations were in short supply. Then-CEO George Miller was suspended for two weeks shortly after Ahmed resigned, after he admitted to arranging for vaccines for people who weren't eligible to get them, including workers at Trump Tower, and members of an Oak Forest church. Miller later left Loretto in April 2022. The Chicago Department of Public Health cut off Loretto's supply of COVID-9 vaccines in March 2021, after learning about the scandal. The city later restored vaccinations at the hospital about a month later, after stepping in to run a new clinic to make sure shots went to those who were eligible. contributed to this report.
