A former exec at a Chicago-area company that hawked COVID-19 testing kits is in hot water for allegedly lining his pockets with more than a cool $1.8 million of company dough, according to a recent indictment.
Dennis W. Haggerty Jr., who held the fort as COO for the Willowbrook, Ill.-based company, is accused of concocting a scheme that funneled fraudulent payments into his own bank account for supposed goods and services that were never actually provided, the indictment unsealed on Dec. 14 details. In what the feds are calling a bold string of white-collar crimes, Haggerty redirected funds earmarked for the company's main testing kit vendor right into his personal coffers, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Illinois announced.
The 47-year-old from Burr Ridge didn't stop there—allegedly issuing company checks to himself. His ploy to conceal the fraud involved crafting false narratives about those checks and feeding misinformation to the company's president, per the indictment.
Piling on to his worries, the indictment also noted that Haggerty's hands were already dirty with another fraud case before these allegations came to light. What's more, the cash grab apparently happened while Haggerty was already on a court-ordered leash from that prior case. He had been sentenced in December 2022 to 57 months in the big house, yet, he seemingly couldn't resist the temptation to dive back into the fraud pool.
Charged with five counts of wire fraud, each carrying the possibility of a 20-year stretch, Haggerty is being held accountable for his actions by the law. Furthermore, any offenses committed while on that previously mentioned court-ordered release could slap an additional decade per count to his sentence. While the wheels of justice spin, it's important to remember that these charges are just that—charges. The man has not been proven guilty in the eyes of the law and is entitled to a fair shake at trial, where the onus is on prosecutors to present clear-cut evidence of his guilt. Assistant U.S. Attorney L. Heidi Manschreck will lead the charge for the government's case.
