A St. Louis judge has entered a roughly $1 million default judgment against Dr. Sonny Saggar, the once-prominent urgent care operator who is now serving a federal prison sentence. The civil ruling stems from a lawsuit Saggar did not answer and opens a fresh path for creditors to try to collect from him while he remains behind bars.
The court set the award at about $1,000,000 after Saggar failed to respond to the civil complaint, according to the St. Louis Business Journal. Because it is a default judgment, the plaintiff can now enforce it unless Saggar successfully persuades the court to set it aside. The Business Journal reports that the judgment was entered while Saggar is still in federal custody.
Background and Criminal Sentence
In August, Saggar pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy and in February 2025 received a 35-month prison sentence, along with an order to repay $742,528, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Missouri. Prosecutors said Saggar admitted hiring assistant physicians to treat patients while billing Medicare and Missouri Medicaid as if he had personally provided the services, which they say caused roughly $742,528 in losses to the government.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office quoted investigators as saying, “This crime went beyond bilking taxpayer funded healthcare programs. Dr. Sonny Saggar risked the well‑being of patients.”
Civil Judgment Adds New Financial Exposure
The new civil default judgment sits on top of the criminal restitution order and can be enforced separately. As detailed by the St. Louis Business Journal, Saggar did not file an answer in the civil case, which allowed the court to enter judgment and fix damages by default. The result: Saggar now faces both a federal repayment obligation of $742,528 and a roughly $1 million civil judgment that a creditor can attempt to collect.
What Saggar Says
Saggar has publicly pushed back on the wave of actions hitting him while he is incarcerated. In a recent post on Medium, he writes that he was blindsided by a series of administrative and civil measures while in custody and says a state agency entered a default against him after he missed a termination hearing. He describes the run of proceedings, including license suspensions, an Office of Inspector General exclusion and the civil default, as interconnected penalties that he argues were imposed without adequate notice while he was locked up.
Legal Implications
Under Missouri procedure, a judgment creditor can pursue tools such as writs of execution, garnishment and liens to collect on a money judgment, and once properly recorded with the clerk a judgment generally becomes a lien on the debtor’s real property. State court guidance describes these steps as the standard options that winning parties in civil suits can use to try to get paid.
If Saggar’s attorneys ask the court to set aside the default, they will have to show good cause under Missouri court rules. Unless that happens, the judgment remains enforceable and available for collection efforts.
For Saggar and his former urgent care operations, the default judgment is another hit in an already bruising legal saga. The next round of filings in the civil case will reveal whether the creditor moves quickly to chase assets or whether the fight shifts to a challenge over the default itself.
