Indicted on fraud charges, ex-Loretto Hospital exec wages bizarre PR campaign from Dubai

Chicago Tribune

6 days ago

The press release over the weekend announcing the latest project by Dr. Anosh Ahmed touted him as a Chicago-based entrepreneur determined to break the cycle of poverty by bringing high-tech jobs to the city's historically underserved West Side.
In a bio attached to the release, Ahmed is described as the former chief operating officer of an unnamed hospital, who expanded services and 'led initiatives in patient care and access' that boosted health care 'for those most in need.'
There were, however, a few things the news release failed to cover — chief among them that Ahmed has been indicted in one of largest Chicago-area health care fraud cases in recent memory.
Ahmed, a former executive at Loretto Hospital in the city's Austin neighborhood, was first hit with embezzlement charges last year alleging he and other hospital executives, including the then-CEO, stole more than $15 million from the small, safety net facility through a fraudulent billing scheme.
Last week, prosecutors filed a new indictment alleging that after he left Loretto in 2021, Ahmed used his connections there to orchestrate a massive conspiracy to collect nearly $300 million for COVID-19 tests that were never performed.
And while the news release, dated Sunday, claimed Ahmed is still based in Chicago, he actually fled to Dubai before the first charges were filed and has not returned to answer to either case. A warrant for his arrest remained active as of this week, court records show.
The news release was the latest in a strange public relations campaign that appears aimed at rebuilding Ahmed's image and possibly courting the attention of President Donald Trump, who has recently granted executive clemency in a number of notable Chicago-area cases, from Gangster Disciples boss Larry Hoover to former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
Distributed by Globe Newswire, an international online public relations service, the release included a media contact identified as Meghan Trump. The phone number listed turned out to be the main switchboard for the Trump International Hotel in Chicago, where Ahmed used to own a condo.
A spokeswoman for the hotel said Monday there was no Meghan Trump who works there and she was unaware that someone had listed the hotel's number on a press release about an unrelated real estate project.
Ahmed's lawyers could not immediately be reached for comment.
The apparently phony media contact was hardly Trump-related overture in the release. The very first paragraph of the document describes Ahmed as a 'Republican leader,' and said he is 'progressing with plans to transform a vacant warehouse on Chicago's West Side into a cryptocurrency and blockchain innovation hub,' in coordination with the Trump administration's 'latest pro-crypto policy direction.'
'The project is designed to stimulate job creation, education, and long-term economic development in an area that has faced decades of underinvestment,' the release stated. 'This isn't just about crypto—it's about building a future economy right here in our community. We're bringing opportunity where it's long been denied.'
The release does not specify the location of the purported 100,000-square-foot warehouse, saying only that it has been vacant for more than a decade.
Peter Strazzabosco, the deputy commissioner of the city's Planning and Development Department, told the Tribune on Tuesday that department staff was 'not aware of this proposed project.'
Other flattering news releases put out over the past year describe Ahmed as a 'billionaire agripreneur' based in Dubai and dedicated to philanthropic causes, including donating millions of pounds of food to the needy in Lebanon.
'I hope to inspire families and professionals worldwide to create a legacy that makes positive ripples in the world at large,' Ahmed was quoted as saying on his web site.
The marketing blitz seems right in the wheelhouse for Ahmed, a native of Pakistan and consummate self-promoter who during the early days of the pandemic was hailed for his work on the front lines of the city's testing and vaccination efforts.
That spotlight intensified in March 2021, after the hospital was chosen by the city as the first vaccination site in Chicago and hosted Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker as he signed a health care bill into law.
But scandal soon erupted after officials at Loretto, including Ahmed, were accused of improperly doling out COVID-19 vaccinations soon after the shots became available. In 2021, following reporting by Block Club Chicago and WBEZ, Loretto admitted it had improperly vaccinated workers at Trump Tower and also improperly gave shots to Cook County judges at a time when the vaccines were still scarce.
Ahmed, the then-chief operating officer of Loretto, also reportedly posed for photos with a smiling Eric Trump and sent text messages bragging that he had vaccinated the president's son, whom he touted as a 'cool guy.'
Ahmed resigned from his position in 2021 after the hospital's board voted to terminate him.
After leaving Loretto, Ahmed moved back to his hometown of Houston, where he started Anosh Inc., a global real estate and 'crypto' investment firm that claims to have more than $1.5 billion in assets around the world, according to court and online records. Its sister foundation sponsors charitable programs like Thanksgiving turkey giveaways and school supply drives for needy children, records show.
Behind the veneer of philanthropy, however, prosecutors allege most of Ahmed's professional life was built on fraud.
According to a superseding indictment filed last year, from 2018 to 2022, Ahmed and his associates, including then-Loretto CEO George Miller, Ahmed's good friend Sameer Suhail, and Heather Bergdahl, a former Loretto executive, caused the cash-strapped hospital 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 Ahmed under various names to conceal their association with the fraudulent payments, which were sent to bank accounts the defendants controlled, the indictment stated.
Last week, Ahmed was charged in a new 24-count indictment with wire fraud, illegal kickbacks and other financial crimes.
According to the new indictment, from April 2021 to June 2022, Ahmed and his co-conspirators used laboratories they opened in Illinois and Texas to submit false claims to the Health Resources and Services Administration for COVID testing of specimens 'purportedly collected from uninsured individuals, knowing that such testing had not occurred.'
In all, the false claims sought reimbursement for nearly $895 million, of which more than $293 million was actually paid, the indictment stated.
To further the scheme, after Ahmed left Loretto Hospital in April 2021, he had a hospital executive identified as Individual F to obtain a spreadsheet containing personal identifiers — including names, dates of birth, gender and addresses — collected from more than 150,000 Loretto patient visits between July 2014 and June 2020, the indictment alleged.
Similar personal information was collected from patients who ordered COVID-19 antigen at-home test kits from an internet site run by his friend and co-defendant, Mahmood Sami Khan, as well as individuals who provided it 'for the purpose of receiving further information about COVID-19,' the indictment stated.
The indictment alleged Ahmed used a variety of methods to try to conceal the scheme, including by having Individual F create a new email address with Loretto's domain name to 'create the false appearance that Ahmed was working on behalf of (Loretto)' and that the hospital was reporting test results to patients, the indictment alleged.
Ahmed also created a number of false and backdated invoices to minimize his involvement with the various labs, communicated in encrypted messaging apps and ordered co-schemers to replace phones and destroy communications and other documents relating to the scheme, the indictment stated.
While the indictment does not identify Individual F, information included in court records show it is Bergdahl.
Prosecutors alleged Ahmed funded a lavish lifestyle with the fraud proceeds. The most recent indictment sought forfeiture in more than $100 million in cash and securities in various accounts controlled by Ahmed, as well as seizure of four luxury properties in Texas, and vehicles including two Rolls-Royces, a Lamborghini Huracan and a Mercedes Benz.
Miller, who left the hospital amid the fallout in 2022, is cooperating and is expected to plead guilty.
Suhail is also believed to be living in Dubai, where he traveled before his indictment. Bergdahl, meanwhile, was arrested after boarding a private jet in Houston that was bound for Dubai. She has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial.
Two of Ahmed's co-defendants in the case filed last week, Khan and Suhaib Ahmad Chaudhry, were arrested in Houston and released on bond pending appearances in U.S. District Court in Chicago, court records show. The third, Mohamed Sirajudeen, agreed to turn himself in.
Cook County real estate records show Ahmed in 2022 had used his 43rd-floor condo at Trump Tower as collateral for a $14 million loan from Sirajudeen. Ahmed later sold the unit to Sirajudeen, who sold it again in December to another Chicago doctor for $2 million, records show.
As the cases go forward, t's unclear if Ahmed will ever return to the U.S. to face the charges. While there is no formal extradition treaty between the U.S. and United Arab Emirates, the country's have coordinated on extradition matters on a case-by-case basis in the past.
A spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office had no comment Monday on any possible negotiations to get Ahmed back to Chicago.