CHICAGO — The previous Loretto Hospital govt charged with stealing thousands and thousands from the safety-net hospital additionally used faux COVID-19 testing firms to steal about $300 million from the federal government, prosecutors alleged in a newly unsealed indictment.
Former Loretto COO and CFO Anosh Ahmed is amongst a bunch of 4 who now face expenses associated to the scheme, prosecutors stated.
Block Membership has reported extensively on Ahmed’s troubling conduct at Loretto Hospital, from letting well-connected individuals entry COVID-19 vaccines early — and even bragging he vaccinated Eric Trump — to contracting with firms owned by his enterprise accomplice, finest good friend and neighbor, Sameer Suhail.
Ahmed and Suhail had been charged in July with wire fraud, embezzlement and cash laundering, with prosecutors alleging they defrauded the hospital out of $15 million. They fled to Dubai.
Individually, Block Membership additionally revealed in 2021 and 2022 that numerous COVID-19 testing firms had been offering questionable and typically faux outcomes whereas showing to wrongfully search federal reimbursements price tons of of thousands and thousands of {dollars}. One of many labs highlighted by Block Membership Chicago for problematic work was O’Hare Medical Lab.
Now, these tales have converged, as prosecutors say Ahmed, Mohamed “Siraj” Sirajudeen and Mahmood Sami Khan used O’Hare Medical Lab, amongst others, to submit false COVID-19 testing claims to the federal government. They sought about $900 million in reimbursements, of which they acquired about $300 million.
The scheme was specified by an indictment that was unsealed Tuesday.
We all know one of these journalism issues to you. Be a part of our struggle for transparency and accountability by donating to help our investigative group, The Watch.
Ahmed has been charged with 14 counts of fraud, in addition to conspiracy to defraud the U.S. authorities, two counts of wrongful renumeration involving federal well being care packages, wrongful disclosure of individually identifiable well being data and 5 counts of cash laundering, in keeping with the indictment.
Sirajudeen, Khan and Suhaib Ahmad Chaudhry additionally face numerous expenses within the case.
O’Hare Medical Lab Acquired $202 Million From Feds
The indictment alleges Ahmed and others used O’Hare Medical Lab and different labs to defraud tons of of thousands and thousands from the federal government by way of faux COVID-19 testing.
Ahmed and others related to his plan submitted about 1.36 million false claims by way of O’Hare Medical Lab for greater than 1 million faux sufferers in simply three months in 2021, prosecutors stated.
Ahmed labored with Sirajudeen — who operated the lab and owned its administration firm, Chicago Polyclinic — for the scheme, which occurred in 2021, prosecutors stated.
Ahmed resigned from Loretto Hospital in March 2021 after Block Membership’s reviews about him letting individuals minimize strains to get COVID-19 vaccines.
A month later, when Ahmed was not working at Loretto Hospital, he acquired a spreadsheet of sufferers’ private data from somebody who was nonetheless working there, prosecutors stated. The leaked data coated greater than 150,000 Loretto affected person visits from July 2014 to June 2020.
Ahmed and the others concerned within the scheme additionally obtained individuals’s data by different means, similar to by amassing data from individuals in trade for a free COVID-19 antigen check or taking it from individuals who ordered at-home testing kits on a web site they ran, prosecutors stated.
This data was finally used when submitting false COVID-19 testing claims to the federal government for reimbursement, prosecutors stated.
Starting round June 2021, Ahmed pretended he was amassing samples for COVID-19 assessments at websites across the nation and performing assessments on behalf of Loretto Hospital — regardless that he was not working there — to make the testing seem reliable to O’Hare Medical Lab, in keeping with the indictment.
Ahmed and others would then present “scrambled” data from faux sufferers to O’Hare Medical Lab, which might purportedly course of the assessments and submit claims for them to the federal authorities, saying the faux sufferers had been uninsured, in keeping with the indictment.
Ahmed additionally sought to get the lab’s proprietor, Sirajudeen, to pay the next assortment price to Ahmed, since Sirajudeen thought Ahmed’s connection to Loretto would imply extra enterprise for O’Hare Medical Lab, prosecutors stated.
O’Hare Medical Lab agreed to pay Ahmed’s Westside Pharmacy enterprise as much as $49.50 per specimen that Ahmed’s enterprise despatched to the lab, prosecutors stated. However the two quickly modified the phrases of their settlement in order that Ahmed would get more cash in trade for every of the specimens his firm despatched in, although they didn’t replace their written settlement and hid this alteration, prosecutors stated.
Somebody who was nonetheless working at Loretto helped within the plan by creating an e mail deal with by Loretto’s area identify the place O’Hare Medical Lab might ship outcomes for the faux assessments collected by Ahmed, making it seem the outcomes could be handed on to sufferers and that Ahmed was nonetheless related to Loretto, prosecutors stated.
Ahmed and Sirajudeen additionally instructed staff to misinform authorities officers to assist conceal the fraud, prosecutors stated.
Simply between June 4, 2021, and Sept. 10, 2021, the federal authorities reimbursed O’Hare Medical Lab for about $202 million for assessments associated to Ahmed’s assortment websites — and the lab and its administration firm then paid Ahmed’s firms about $147 million, prosecutors stated.
When the federal authorities disqualified O’Hare Medical Lab in September 2021 from submitting claims resulting from a employee’s felony conviction, Sirajudeen and Ahmed tried to “proceed the scheme” by showing to alter the lab’s possession, however they had been unsuccessful, prosecutors stated.
And when the Illinois Division of Public Well being “raised considerations” concerning the quantity of testing purportedly being executed by Loretto Hospital, Ahmed and Sirajudeen instructed workers to not report check outcomes to the company and falsely knowledgeable the company that Loretto would report the outcomes, hoping to hide the scheme, prosecutors stated.
Texas Labs
Later in 2021, Ahmed — with Khan and Chaudhry — took management of numerous non-operational laboratories in Texas, prosecutors stated. Ahmed, Khan and others then labored to submit by way of these labs about 466,000 false claims to the federal government for COVID-19 testing, billing the feds about $227.4 million and acquiring $83.36 million, prosecutors stated.
Individually, in December 2021, Ahmed and Sirajudeen stated Ahmed was going to purchase a working lab in Texas — however that they’d conceal the possession, having the documentation present the lab was owned by Khan and one other individual, prosecutors stated.
That lab, too, then submitted faux claims for COVID-19 check outcomes to the federal government, searching for about $25 million and getting about $8 million, prosecutors stated.
Ahmed, Sirajudeen and Khan tried to hide the false claims made on behalf of the Texas labs, opening financial institution accounts with deceptive names, creating false and backdated invoices and contracts and transferring cash between numerous financial institution accounts, prosecutors stated.
Ahmed additionally ordered his co-schemers to solely use encrypted messaging apps, substitute their telephones and destroy their communications and paperwork associated to the scheme, prosecutors stated.
Years In The Making
Ahmed couldn’t instantly be reached for remark. He fled to Dubai in 2024 as he confronted expenses within the Loretto case.
Attorneys weren’t listed for Sirajudeen, Khan and Chaudhry.
If convicted, the defendants should forfeit numerous properties, money and property allegedly associated to the crimes, together with as much as $50.5 million in an account Ahmed had; pursuits and securities price tens of thousands and thousands; luxurious vehicles, together with two Rolls Royce, a Mercedes-Benz and a Lamborghini Huaracan; and a number of properties in Houston.
The circumstances had been years within the making.
In March 2021, when vaccines had been nonetheless uncommon and extremely sought-after, Block Membership reported that Trump Tower had vaccinated its workers, claiming it was a part of a program meant to assist residents of the West and South aspect, which had been gravely impacted by COVID-19.
In a collection of tales, Block Membership then revealed the vaccinations had been arrange by Ahmed, who’d additionally bragged that he’d vaccinated Eric Trump, son of President Donald Trump. Additional tales confirmed Loretto had additionally vaccinated individuals at a luxurious Gold Coast jewellery store that Ahmed frequented and other people at a steakhouse he ate at.
The hospital additionally vaccinated individuals at CEO George Miller’s suburban church, and a health care provider with ties to Loretto vaccinated his suburban-based household with does from the hospital.
Ahmed resigned inside days, and town took management of the hospital’s doses in an try to make sure they might go to the individuals who wanted them most.
Block Membership then raised questions concerning the Suhail firms that had been awarded thousands and thousands of {dollars} in contracts beneath Ahmed’s management, however Loretto repeatedly declined to say whether or not Ahmed had disclosed the potential battle of curiosity. It additionally declined to reply questions on whether or not Loretto was working with another Suhail firms.
One of many hospital’s most outstanding supporters in the course of the scandal was state Sen. Kimberly Lightford, the Illinois Senate majority chief and vice chair of Loretto’s board. She repeatedly criticized Block Membership’s reporting and defended then-CEO Miller.
Block Membership confirmed the hospital and its leaders had been going through a number of investigations.
Miller left Loretto in April 2022 amid the investigations.
Then, in Might 2024, former hospital govt Heather Bergdahl was charged with embezzling $500,000 from the hospital in the course of the COVID-19 disaster. Ahmed and Suhail had been charged with defrauding the hospital of $15 million that July, and, in October, prosecutors stated Miller had accepted $770,000 in bribes to funnel hospital contracts to firms run by Suhail.
Tuesday’s unsealed indictment marks the newest expenses in that case.
Individually, in late 2021 and early 2022, when america noticed monumental surges of COVID-19 and other people had been determined to get examined and preserve one another secure, Block Membership confirmed that quite a few COVID-19 pop-up testing websites had been offering incorrect and typically faux outcomes.
The businesses behind the websites — together with O’Hare Medical Lab — had been amassing tons of of thousands and thousands from the federal government in reimbursements and ran tons of of websites throughout america.
Amid Block Membership’s reporting, a number of firms shut down and state and federal companies launched investigations.
Take heed to the Block Membership Chicago podcast:
