Crime & Law
Former Loretto Hospital Execs Charged in $15M Embezzlement Scheme
The nonprofit Loretto Hospital in Austin. (WTTW News)
A trio of former Loretto Hospital executives are facing federal charges accusing them of embezzling more than $15 million over more than four years.
Federal prosecutors in Chicago charged the hospital’s former chief financial officer Anosh Ahmed, its chief transformation officer Heather Bergdahl and the medical supply company owner Sameer Suhail with multiple counts of wire fraud in connection with the alleged scheme.
According to the feds, between 2018 and 2022, the trio created fictitious documents including invoices and payment requests, which contained false information about goods and services which were never actually provided to Loretto Hospital — the West Side medical facility that came under fire during the pandemic for allegedly offering still-rare COVID-19 vaccines to select VIPs.
In a 25-page indictment unsealed Friday, prosecutors allege Ahmed and Suhail created new names for companies they owned and controlled in order to conceal their connections to them before submitting fraudulent payment requests to Loretto Hospital in the names of those companies.
Between Sept. 2020 and Feb. 2022, Suhail and Bergdahl allegedly submitted to the hospital requests for payments to the fictitious vendor companies operated by Suhail. The indictment details more than two dozen of these alleged payment requests, which range in size from around $20,000 up to more than $3.6 million.
It’s also alleged in the indictment that Bergdahl opened bank accounts in the names of two legitimate hospital vendors and caused the hospital to deposit fraudulent payments into those accounts.
Ultimately, Ahmed, Bergdahl and Suhail allegedly caused Loretto Hospital to transfer more than $15 million in proceeds into bank accounts that the trio controlled. Prosecutors said they obtained those funds “for their personal use and benefit.”
Bergdahl was previously arrested earlier this year in Houston, where she now resides. The Chicago Tribune reported at that time that Bergdahl was taken into custody after she boarded a private jet set to take her to Dubai. She now faces 14 counts of wire fraud, 21 counts of embezzlement and one count of money laundering.
Ahmed, 40, is charged with eight counts of wire fraud, four counts of embezzlement, eleven counts of aiding and abetting embezzlement and three counts of money laundering. Suhail, 47, is charged with six counts of wire fraud, six counts of aiding and abetting embezzlement, and two counts of money laundering.
Arraignments in Chicago’s federal court have not yet been scheduled.
