CHICAGO — This is an official press release from the U.S. Department of Justice (Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)), published as received.
CHICAGO — An ongoing federal investigation into alleged corruption and embezzlement at a Chicago hospital has resulted in a conspiracy charge against the hospital’s former Chief Executive Officer.
A 45-count, second superseding indictment accuses former CEO GEORGE MILLER, JR., 73, of Dallas, Texas, of conspiring with the hospital’s then-Chief Financial Officer, ANOSH AHMED, 40, of Houston, Texas, to corruptly steer vendor contracts and other hospital business to certain medical supply companies in exchange for cash from the companies’ owner, SAMEER SUHAIL, 47, of Chicago. Ahmed, Suhail, and the hospital’s former Chief Transformation Officer, HEATHER BERGDAHL, 37, of Houston, Texas, were originally indicted earlier this year on fraud, embezzlement, and money laundering counts. The charges accused them of causing the hospital to issue payments to purported vendor companies for goods and services that they 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 charges alleged. Bergdahl allegedly opened bank accounts in the names of two legitimate hospital vendors and caused the hospital to deposit fraudulent payments into those accounts.
The second superseding indictment, which was returned Thursday in U.S. District Court in Chicago, renews the prior charges against Ahmed, Suhail, and Bergdahl, adds Miller as a defendant, and includes new tax charges against Ahmed for allegedly underreporting income in his individual tax returns. The newly returned indictment alleges that from 2018 to 2021, Suhail paid Miller and Ahmed a share of $19 million in payments that he received from the hospital, in return for Miller and Ahmed steering those contracts and business to him. The payments to Miller and Ahmed were in addition to the millions of dollars in fraudulent payments charged in the prior indictment.
Arraignments on the second superseding indictment have not yet been scheduled.
The second superseding indictment was announced by Morris Pasqual, Acting United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, Douglas S. DePodesta, 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 Ramsey E. Covington, Acting Special Agent-in-Charge of IRS Criminal Investigation in Chicago. The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Sheri H. Mecklenburg and Kelly L. Guzman.
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.
