Sameer Suhail Indictment: Loretto Hospital Fraud, Dubai Flight

Sameer Suhail, the Chicago medical supply executive and founder of Foresight Hospital and Health Systems, was indicted in 2024 on federal charges tied to a scheme that allegedly embezzled more than $15 million from Loretto Hospital on Chicago’s West Side. He fled to Dubai before the charges were unsealed, lived there as a fugitive for nearly two years, and returned to the United States on April 21, 2026, when he was taken into custody at O’Hare International Airport and later pleaded not guilty.¹

The Federal Charges Against Suhail

A superseding indictment returned on July 11, 2024, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois charged Suhail with six counts of wire fraud, six counts of aiding and abetting embezzlement from a program receiving federal funds, and two counts of money laundering.²

The case expanded on October 10, 2024, when prosecutors filed a 45-count second superseding indictment that added former Loretto CEO George Miller as a defendant and brought new charges against all four defendants, including conspiracy, additional fraud and embezzlement counts, money laundering, and a conspiracy to solicit and receive kickbacks. The most serious counts against Suhail carry a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.³⁴

The case is docketed as United States v. Bergdahl, No. 1:24-cr-00232.⁵ Suhail is presumed innocent unless proven guilty at trial.

How the Alleged Scheme Worked

Prosecutors say the fraud ran from 2018 to 2022. The mechanism was simple: Suhail and his co-defendants allegedly caused Loretto Hospital to pay vendor companies for goods and services that were never delivered, papering the transactions with fictitious invoices, payment requests, and delivery receipts.²

Suhail and former CFO Anosh Ahmed allegedly created vendor companies under various names to conceal their involvement in the fraudulent payments. Former CEO George Miller allegedly steered $19 million in hospital contracts to companies run by Suhail and accepted more than $769,000 in bribes in return. A fourth defendant, former Chief Transformation Officer Heather Bergdahl, allegedly opened bank accounts in the names of two legitimate hospital vendors and routed fraudulent hospital payments into them.⁶³

Loretto’s own tax filings show the scale of payments flowing to entities tied to Suhail. Between July 2018 and June 2019, three of the hospital’s top-paid independent contractors were Suhail-linked companies: One Health Billing Co. received $2.1 million; SKS Healthcare Management Group received roughly $887,000 for “outside lab services”; and Metropolitan Behavioral Associates Inc. received $980,000 for “behavioral services.” One Health Billing was incorporated in Delaware in September 2018 and headquartered at Suhail’s Trump Tower condominium. Suhail served as president and director of SKS Healthcare until he was removed in March 2021.⁷

Flight to Dubai and Return to Custody

Suhail moved to Dubai in early June 2024, shortly before the federal charges were publicly announced the following month. He was placed on the court’s fugitive calendar and remained abroad for more than a year and a half.⁶⁵

He returned on April 21, 2026, arriving at O’Hare around 4:00 p.m., where federal agents took him into custody. His attorney, Adam Sheppard, said the return was voluntary and that Suhail had been working with authorities to come back, though the process had been “delayed.”⁸

Suhail was held overnight and appeared at the Dirksen Federal Courthouse on April 22, 2026, where he pleaded not guilty. U.S. Magistrate Judge Beth Jantz released him on a $5 million bond secured by four properties and ordered him confined to his home on electronic monitoring at his own expense. She also ordered him to have no contact with his co-defendants or with current or former Loretto Hospital employees and to surrender his Firearm Owner’s Identification card and concealed carry license.⁹⁶

Where the Co-Defendants Stand

Suhail is one of four defendants in the Loretto case, and each is at a different stage.

George Miller Jr., the former CEO, was added to the case in the October 2024 second superseding indictment and charged with conspiracy. He appeared for arraignment on November 5, 2024, entered a not-guilty plea, and was released on a $4,500 unsecured bond. As of April 2026, court records indicated he was scheduled to plead guilty on April 30, 2026.⁵⁸

Heather Bergdahl, the former Chief Transformation Officer, was charged in the original 2024 indictment with 14 counts of wire fraud, 21 counts of embezzlement, and one count of money laundering. She pleaded not guilty to the second superseding indictment in October 2024 and, as of April 2026, was also expected to plead guilty.²⁴

Anosh Ahmed, the former CFO, is the co-defendant whose situation is most tangled. He faces charges in the Loretto embezzlement case and in a separate federal case alleging nearly $900 million in false COVID-19 testing claims that yielded roughly $293 million in reimbursements. Ahmed fled the United States in 2023, was arrested in Serbia on November 30, 2025, through an Interpol Red Notice, and lost a petition for release on December 30, 2025. The U.S. government submitted a formal extradition request on January 23, 2026, and as of mid-2026 he remained in Serbian custody with extradition uncertain.¹⁰¹¹

In June 2026, prosecutors dropped charges against two of Ahmed’s co-defendants in the COVID testing case after defense attorneys identified what they described as repeated prosecutorial misconduct before the grand jury. The same Assistant U.S. Attorney, Sheri Mecklenburg, also took a leading role in the Suhail embezzlement case. Reporting through June 2026 did not indicate that the misconduct allegations had affected the Loretto embezzlement prosecution.¹²

Foresight Hospital and the Patrick County Project

Separate from his Chicago medical supply businesses, Suhail founded Foresight Hospital and Health Systems in February 2022 and served as its CEO and president. Foresight bought a vacant 10-acre hospital property in Patrick County, Virginia, for $2.1 million in April 2022, promising to reopen it as a critical access hospital in a rural area that had lost its only hospital when Pioneer Health Services went bankrupt in 2016.¹³

Foresight received a Certificate of Public Need from Virginia in February 2023 for inpatient psychiatric and substance use services, but the broader reopening never happened. In 2023 the company offered to donate the building to Patrick County in exchange for $815,000 to cover roughly half of its claimed expenses, and the county declined.¹⁴

A review of Foresight’s expense records raised further questions. Of $1.63 million in claimed project costs, more than $457,000 went toward private jet travel and luxury resort lodging, and $22,000 was paid to the county’s former economic development director. Virginia Delegate Wren Williams said publicly that “it seems Foresight acted in bad faith and our community has again suffered a major setback.” Foresight sold the property in March 2024 to Wolf of Wabash LLC, a Chicago company registered at the address of Trump International Hotel and Tower, for $1.6 million.¹³¹⁵

Who Is Investigating and Case Status

The Loretto embezzlement case is being investigated by the FBI, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, and IRS Criminal Investigation, with prosecution led by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois.³

As of mid-2026, Suhail remained on home confinement after his not-guilty plea. Miller and Bergdahl were expected to plead guilty, and Ahmed continued to fight extradition from Serbia. The court had granted repeated continuances throughout 2024 and 2025 to allow for the production of what the government described as “voluminous discovery,” and no trial date had been set on the public docket.⁵

1
CBS News Chicago. Fugitive Medical Executive Sameer Suhail Loretto Hospital Fraud Embezzlement
2
U.S. Department of Justice. Former Chief Financial Officer of Chicago Hospital Among Three Defendants Charged in Alleged Embezzlement Scheme
3
U.S. Department of Justice. Former Chief Executive Officer of Chicago Hospital Added to Federal Indictment
4
Chicago Tribune. Fugitive Chicago Exec Loretto Fraud
5
CourtListener. United States v. Bergdahl Docket
6
Block Club Chicago. Medical Exec Back in Chicago to Face Loretto Fraud Charges After Living as Fugitive in Dubai
7
Block Club Chicago. Cash-Strapped Loretto Hospital Paid Millions to Companies Formed by Ousted Executive’s Pal
8
Chicago Sun-Times. Loretto Hospital Fraud Embezzlement Sameer Suhail
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Yahoo News. Fugitive Chicago Medical Exec Returns
10
WTTW News. Ex-Loretto Hospital Exec Who Fled US After Being Charged in Massive Fraud Schemes Arrested
11
Block Club Chicago. Fugitive Ex-Loretto Leader at Center of $300 Million COVID Scandal Arrested in Serbia
12
Block Club Chicago. Charges Dropped Against 2 in $300 Million Fraud Case Tied to Ex-Loretto Executive
13
Cardinal News. CEO of Company That Sought to Reopen Patrick County Hospital Indicted on Embezzlement Charges
14
Cardinal News. Foresight Sells Patrick County Hospital Site, Plans Behavioral Health Center Instead
15
The Enterprise. Hospital Property Sells in Online Auction