CHICAGO — A suburban Chicago businessman has been sentenced to just about 5 years in federal jail for swindling thousands and thousands from a hospital that paid him for scarce private protecting gear within the early weeks of the Covid-19 pandemic.
DENNIS W. HAGGERTY, JR., 46, of Burr Ridge, Unwell., pleaded responsible earlier this yr to federal wire fraud and cash laundering prices. U.S. District Decide John F. Kness on Monday imposed a 57-month sentence and ordered Haggerty to pay greater than $1.9 million in restitution.
The sentence was introduced by John R. Lausch, Jr., United States Lawyer for the Northern District of Illinois; and John S. Morales, Appearing Particular Agent-in-Cost of the Chicago Area Workplace of the FBI. The federal government was represented by Assistant U.S. Lawyer L. Heidi Manschreck.
Haggerty and two enterprise companions in March 2020 shaped an organization referred to as At Diagnostics Inc. to promote private protecting gear. The corporate agreed to promote 500,000 N95 respirator masks to a hospital in Iowa for $2.495 million. Haggerty created an bill to replicate the settlement and to instruct the hospital on the place to wire the cost. Based mostly on the bill, the hospital on March 31, 2020, wired the cash to a checking account that Haggerty falsely claimed was an At Diagnostics account, however which was truly the account of a unique enterprise solely managed by Haggerty.
Haggerty spent a part of the cash for his private profit, together with buying three luxurious vehicles, paying almost $189,000 to bank card firms, withdrawing greater than $147,000 in money, and paying $20,000 to a private pal. At Diagnostics by no means delivered the masks, and when questioned about it by the hospital he falsely claimed that the financial institution had no document of the hospital’s cost being obtained. When his enterprise companions questioned Haggerty in regards to the whereabouts of the cash, Haggerty altered a financial institution assertion to make it seem as if the hospital’s funds had not been obtained.
Haggerty additionally engaged in related conduct with a hospital in Illinois. After agreeing to promote a million N95 masks for almost $4.5 million, the hospital requested that an preliminary cost be despatched to an escrow account as an alternative of the account Haggerty offered. When At Diagnostics failed to satisfy the hospital’s order, the cash in escrow was returned. The hospital, nonetheless, later inadvertently wired greater than $933,000 to Haggerty’s account in reference to a second order for 500,000 N95 masks that was by no means fulfilled. Haggerty spent a few of this cash for his private use and didn’t return any of it.
Haggerty’s sentence included an enhancement for obstruction of justice. In his preliminary court docket filings prematurely of sentencing, Haggerty claimed that he had relied on a invoice of lading purportedly despatched by a provider of the N95 masks, and that he started spending the cash from the primary hospital believing it was owed to him from his enterprise companions. Haggerty later withdrew these claims and admitted that he had created a faux invoice of lading. He acknowledged that his conduct warranted the enhancement.