Former Chief Financial Officer of Chicago Hospital Among Three Defendants Charged in Alleged $15 Million Embezzlement Scheme

CHICAGO — 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, ANOSH AHMED was responsible for managing the hospital’s finances, including its Finance, Accounting, and Accounts Payable departments.  From 2018 to 2022, Ahmed schemed 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, the indictment states.  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 states.  Bergdahl opened bank accounts in the names of two legitimate hospital vendors and caused the hospital to deposit fraudulent payments into those accounts, the indictment states. 

In an 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 defendants caused the hospital to pay more than $15 million into bank accounts that they controlled, the indictment states.

The superseding indictment was returned on Thursday.  It charges Ahmed, 40, of Houston, Texas, with eight counts of wire fraud, four counts of embezzlement, eleven counts of aiding and abetting embezzlement, and three counts of money laundering.  Bergdahl, 37, of Houston, Texas, 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.

The superseding indictment was announced by Morris Pasqual, Acting United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, Robert W. “Wes” Wheeler, Jr., Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Field Office of the FBI, Mario Pinto, Special Agent-in-Charge of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General, and Jason Bushey, Acting Special Agent-in-Charge of the IRS Criminal Investigation Division in Chicago.  The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Sheri H. Mecklenburg and Kelly L. Guzman.  The officials noted that the investigation remains ongoing.

The public is reminded that 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.