A former chief operating officer at a suburban Chicago company that marketed COVID-19 testing kits has been found guilty and sentenced to a term of more than six years in federal prison for the embezzlement of company funds exceeding $1.85 million. Dennis W. Haggerty, Jr., 48, of Burr Ridge, Ill., pleaded guilty to a wire fraud charge and acknowledged that his criminal actions were carried out while he was already on a pre-trial and pre-sentencing release for a prior fraud case. According to a report from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Illinois, Haggerty's new sentence of six years and five months was handed down by U.S. District Judge John Robert Blakey.
Haggerty was previously involved in a scam to quickly swindle hospitals by purporting to supply them with scarce personal protective equipment during the initial outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. He was to complete a sentence for this earlier offense in December 2022. However, it came to light that Haggerty misappropriated funds from the Willowbrook-based company by issuing checks to himself and wiring money to his own bank accounts, falsely claiming these expenditures were for services and goods that were never provided. In a fraudulent attempt to further conceal his actions, he made false statements on the checks and misled the company’s president.
The severity of this case is underscored by the betrayal of trust during a period of acute public need, with the fraud centered around Covid-19, a topic that, for a time, dominated the global conscience. "Haggerty must serve the sentence after completing his federal sentence for the earlier fraud scheme," said Morris Pasqual, Acting United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, who announced the sentencing alongside officials from the FBI and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General.
While Haggerty's earlier fraudulent activity had abused the desperation of medical institutions during an unprecedented health crisis, his subsequent embezzlement from the testing kit company showed a pattern of malfeasance, pointing to a troubling disposition to exploit the crisis for personal gain. Assistant U.S. Attorney L. Heidi Manschreck represented the government in this case, marking another step in holding accountable those who leverage times of public hardship for their personal enrichment.
