Hospital CFO one of three charged with $15M fraud scheme
The defendants allegedly caused the hospital to pay vendors for goods and services they knew had not been provided.
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The former Chief Financial Officer of a Chicago hospital schemed with a colleague and the owner of a medical supply company to embezzle more than $15 million in hospital funds, according to a superseding indictment returned in U.S. District Court in Chicago.
As the hospital's CFO, the indictment claims, Anosh Ahmed was responsible for managing the hospital's finances, including its finance, accounting and accounts payable departments. From 2018 to 2022, Ahmed allegedly colluded with the hospital's chief transformation officer, Heather Bergdahl, and the medical supply company owner, Sameer Suhail, to cause the hospital to issue payments to vendor companies for purported goods and services that the defendants knew had not been provided.
Many of the purported vendor companies were created by Suhail and Ahmed under various names to conceal their association with the fraudulent payments, the indictment said. Bergdahl supposedly opened bank accounts in the names of two legitimate hospital vendors and caused the hospital to deposit fraudulent payments into those accounts.
In an apparent effort to conceal the scheme, Ahmed, Bergdahl and Suhail allegedly created fictitious invoices, payment requests, delivery receipts and other false documents about goods and services purportedly provided to the hospital. As a result of the scheme, the indictment said the defendants caused the hospital to pay more than $15 million into bank accounts that they controlled.
WHAT'S THE IMPACT?
The superseding indictment was returned on Thursday. It charges Ahmed, 40, of Houston, Texas, with eight counts of wire fraud, four counts of embezzlement, 11 counts of aiding and abetting embezzlement, and three counts of money laundering.
Bergdahl, 37, of Houston, is charged with 14 counts of wire fraud, 21 counts of embezzlement, and one count of money laundering. Suhail, 47, of Chicago, is charged with six counts of wire fraud, six counts of aiding and abetting embezzlement, and two counts of money laundering.
Arraignments in federal court in Chicago have not yet been scheduled.
An indictment is not evidence of guilt. The defendants are presumed innocent and entitled to a fair trial, at which the government has the burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
THE LARGER TREND
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, settlements and judgments under the False Claims Act exceeded $2.68 billion in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2023. Of that total, more than $1.8 billion related to matters that involved the healthcare industry – including managed care providers, hospitals, pharmacies, laboratories, long-term acute care facilities and physicians.
The government and whistleblowers were party to 543 settlements and judgments, the highest number of settlements and judgments in a single year. Recoveries since 1986, when Congress substantially strengthened the civil False Claims Act, now total more than $75 billion.
Jeff Lagasse is editor of Healthcare Finance News.
Email: jlagasse@himss.org
Healthcare Finance News is a HIMSS Media publication.
