Crime & Law

Ex-Loretto Exec Anosh Ahmed Pleads Not Guilty on Fraud Charges

Anosh Ahmed, the former Loretto Hospital executive who fled the U.S. amid a federal investigation into his alleged fraud and money laundering schemes, appeared before a federal judge in Chicago on Monday where he pleaded not guilty on more than a dozen charges.

Ahmed allegedly fled to Dubai after he was charged in a separate embezzlement scheme, but was taken into custody in Serbia early this year and eventually returned to the U.S., according to federal prosecutors.

On Monday he pleaded not guilty to all charges in a new, 15-count indictment returned against him last week.

Ahmed was already set to remain in federal custody ahead of Monday’s hearing after he appeared in court last week where U.S. Magistrate Judge Young Kim ordered that he remain at the Metropolitan Correctional Facility in downtown Chicago following a separate hearing last Friday.

“Right now he’s gonna stay in custody,” U.S. District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman said during Monday’s arraignment, adding she was “glad to see you here in the flesh.”

Ahmed exited Loretto in March 2021 amid multiple controversies during the pandemic involving improper vaccination events, as detailed in reporting at the time by Block Club Chicago. But according to prosecutors, he obtained a spreadsheet the following month which contained personal information — including names, dates of birth, gender and addresses — of some 150,000 Loretto patients who’d visited the hospital between July 2014 and June 2020.

Last year, Ahmed was hit with new charges alleging he and three others — Mohamed Sirajudeen, Mahmood Sami Khan and Suhaib Ahmad Chaudhry — submitted fraudulent reimbursement claims to the federal government for COVID-19 testing materials totaling nearly $900 million, of which approximately $293 million was paid between June 2021 and March 2022.

Ahmed and his codefendants then allegedly used that info to submit the fraudulent claims, according to the indictment.

But already this latest case has come under scrutiny after it was revealed the indictments against the defendants were issued by the same grand jury that brought charges in the botched “Broadview Six” protester case.

Sirajudeen pleaded guilty earlier this month after Coleman agreed to dismiss the charges against Khan and Chaudhry in June after it was revealed the same prosecutor from the Broadview case, Sheri Mecklenburg, who has come under fire for grand jury misconduct, secured the indictments in this case as well.

Since then, the feds secured a new indictment against Ahmed from a separate prosecutor and grand jury.

Coleman has refused to allow Ahmed to join in his co-defendants dismissal request while he remained out of federal custody overseas. His defense attorney, former Chicago U.S. Attorney Dan Webb, said Monday he may now seek to join that request or could seek to change his plea in the near future.

Webb said he’s trying to resolve the case “reasonably quickly.”

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