Sameer Suhail, M.D., president & CEO of Foresight Health which owned the hospital in Patrick County, was among those indicted last week in Chicago in connection with an alleged scheme to embezzle more than $15 million in hospital funds, according to a superseding indictment returned in the U.S. District Court in Chicago.
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.
Suhail, 47, of Chicago, was charged with six counts of wire fraud, six counts of aiding and abetting embezzlement, and two counts of money laundering, according to Illinois authorities.
“This is unfortunate, disturbing bad news for our community,” Del. Wren Williams, R-Stuart, said, adding that it delays the process to reopen the hospital. However, “we are continuing to make progress and move forward.”
Doug Perry, chairman of the Patrick County Board of Supervisors, said he really doesn’t care about Suhail’s situation.
“We’ve got more important things to do. He made his bed, he can lay in it, and we’ve got more important things to do to move forward than give whatever he’s done in the past any attention. We got no hand in it, and we’ve got a lot of things in the works to move the county forward and improve,” Perry said.
Perry said he doesn’t know what will happen with the hospital property since it was sold
Foresight HS Property Holdings – Blue Ridge LLC, sold the former hospital property in March to Wolf of Wabash, LLC, in Illinois.
After the sale, “who knows what kind of shenanigans and tomfoolery they’re up to,” Perry said. “I don’t know what they’ll do with it, and at this point, as run down as it is or the shape that it’s in, I don’t know what can be done with it. We’ll just have to wait and see.”
“The recent news of Mr. Sameer Suhail being indicted is another blow to the community’s trust, regarding the development of the former hospital property in the Town of Stuart; however, it is not surprising news,” said Bryce Simmons, Stuart Town Manager. “In my professional capacity, I have tried to work with Foresight Health to identify zoning issues, needs of the community, and connect the company to people that can help. The majority, if not all of those efforts, have been met with broken promises or complete silence, which is extremely frustrating when trying to plan for improved services in the community.
“On multiple occasions, our community leaders have been blamed for the lack of a hospital, when the reality is, we cannot advocate for a healthcare system that is based on lies and misrepresentations,” Simmons said. “I understand the need for better healthcare in the Town of Stuart and in Patrick County; however, I cannot in good faith, bankrupt the local government for that sole purpose. I do look forward to working with the new owner of the property and hope that we can build a trusting relationship, aimed at providing this critical need for our citizens.”
In a release announcing the indictments, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Northern District of Illinois wrote that the former Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of a Chicago hospital schemed with a colleague and the owner of a medical supply company to embezzle the funds.
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 allegedly schemed with the hospital’s Chief Transformation Officer, Heather Bergdahl, and the medical supply company owner, 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 allegedly created by Suhail and Ahmed under various names to conceal their association with the fraudulent payments, the indictment states. 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 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 three allegedly caused the hospital to pay more than $15 million into bank accounts that they controlled, the indictment states.
The superseding indictment returned Thursday also 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.
Arraignments in federal court in Chicago have not yet been scheduled.
The investigation is ongoing.
