The former CFO at Loretto Hospital has been charged in an expansive new indictment alleging he embezzled at least $15 million from the small safety-net facility on Chicago’s West Side over a five-year period, including at the height of the COVID-19 crisis.
Anosh Ahmed, 40, of Houston, who resigned from his position as chief financial officer in 2021 after the hospital’s board voted to terminate him, was charged in a superseding indictment made public Friday with 26 counts, including wire fraud, embezzlement, aiding and abetting embezzlement, and money laundering.
The new indictment also adds to charges previously filed against Heather Bergdahl, 37, a friend of Ahmed’s from Houston whom he hired in 2020 to serve as Loretto’s chief transformation officer.
Also charged is Sameer Suhail, 47, of Chicago, a doctor and medical supply company owner accused of serving as a front for millions of dollars in bogus payments by Loretto for invoices that were never fulfilled.
Arraignments in U.S. District Court in Chicago have not yet been scheduled. Two sources familiar with the case told the Tribune that Ahmed fled to Dubai earlier this year.
Attorneys for Ahmed and Suhail were not listed in court records as of Friday, and attorneys for Bergdahl could not immediately be reached for comment.
The indictment is the latest fallout from a federal investigation that began after Loretto’s vaccination program came under fire for administering hundreds of COVID shots at a suburban church connected to then-CEO George Miller at a time where vaccination doses were still scarce.
Around the same time, Loretto’s board reprimanded Miller and Ahmed after the hospital improperly vaccinated ineligible workers at Trump Tower downtown and Cook County judges.
Miller was suspended and later left the hospital amid the fallout in April 2022. He has not been criminally charged.
According to the superseding indictment, Ahmed, Bergdahl and Suhail “transferred proceeds of the scheme to each other and to their associates,” including an associate referred to as “Employee A,” who was an executive at Loretto from 2017 to April 12, 2022 — a date that matches Miller’s resignation exactly.
Bergdahl, meanwhile, was arrested on the original charges in May after boarding a private jet in Houston that was chartered to take her to Dubai. The flight had been arranged by Ahmed, though Bergdahl’s attorney argued it was a pre-planned vacation and not an attempt to flee. She was later released on bond secured by her parents’ home.
According to the superseding indictment, from 2018 to 2022, Ahmed, Bergdahl, and Suhail caused Loretto 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 Suhail and Ahmed under various names to conceal their association with the fraudulent payments, which were sent to bank accounts the defendants controlled, the indictment stated.
According to the 20-page criminal complaint filed in May, Ahmed knew Bergdahl from their time working together in Houston. Her duties as the hospital’s chief transformation officer included cutting checks to vendors and “handling outreach for screening and COVID-19 testing and vaccines.”
Bergdahl left Loretto in March 2022, shortly before Miller’s resignation, records show. Her LinkedIn profile earlier this year listed her as chief financial officer of Anosh Inc., a Houston-based alternative investment firm established by Ahmed in 2021.
Suhail is currently CEO of Foresight Hospital and Health Systems, which is headquartered on East Wacker Drive, records show. According to his online bio, Suhail “is an entrepreneur, health care investor, and philanthropist” whose “personal mission is to provide quality health care for local communities, particularly those in underserved urban and rural communities.”
The charges come two years after a federal grand jury subpoenaed the state Department of Public Health for information on dozens of people who were given shots by Loretto — the same time frame as the vaccinations given at Trump Tower and elsewhere, according to records released by the state.
That investigation later expanded to include Valley Kingdom Ministries International Church in Oak Forest where hundreds of congregants were allegedly vaccinated while shots were still in short supply and only supposed to be given to people ages 65 and older and front-line workers.
The vaccination event also occurred as health and community leaders emphasized a need to distribute vaccines equitably, making sure hard-hit communities on the South and West sides got the shots.
The Chicago Department of Public Health at the time said it suspended vaccination distribution to Loretto after learning of potential vaccine distribution issues. The city later stepped in to manage the clinic at the hospital in order to help ensure Austin residents had priority access to vaccinations.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker and then-Mayor Lori Lightfoot said the city and state were cooperating with investigators.
jmeisner@chicagotribune.com
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