Crime & Law
Former Loretto Hospital CEO Charged With Taking More Than $750K in Bribes
The nonprofit Loretto Hospital in Austin. (WTTW News)
Another former Loretto Hospital executive has been charged in connection with an ongoing conspiracy investigation.
The West Side hospital’s ex-CEO George Miller was charged in a superseding indictment Friday after he allegedly received more than $750,000 in bribes from medical supply company owner Sameer Suhail after helping steer hospital contracts to businesses run by Suhail.
Suhail was charged earlier this year alongside a pair of former Loretto executives, COO Anosh Ahmed and chief transformation officer Heather Bergdahl.
According to the indictment, Miller — who served as Loretto CEO from Nov. 2017 until April 2022 — and Ahmed used their positions to award Loretto contracts and other business to entities affiliated with Suhail without putting those contracts or business up for bids.
In exchange, Suhail allegedly agreed to pay Ahmed and Miller a portion of the profits from those deals.
Between Oct. 15, 2018, and June 1, 2019, Ahmed and Miller caused three contracts to be awarded to Suhail-connected entities, which resulted in Loretto transferring at least $19 million into Suhail’s bank accounts, the indictment states.
Suhail then allegedly paid money to Ahmed, who then sent $769,000 to Miller, either directly or through another individual, according to the indictment. Suhail also allegedly made payments directly to Miller in 2021 totaling approximately $7,300.
According to Block Club Chicago, Ahmed and Suhail have fled the country and are working in Dubai. Bergdahl was arrested earlier this year while on a plane that was set to fly to Dubai.
Between September 2020 and February 2022, Suhail and Bergdahl allegedly submitted to the hospital requests for payments to the fictitious vendor companies operated by Suhail. A previous indictment detailed more than two dozen of these alleged payment requests, which range in size from around $20,000 up to more than $3.6 million.
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.”
