Former Chief Operating Officer of Suburban Chicago Covid-19 Testing Kit Company Charged With Embezzling at Least $1.8 Million in Company Funds

CHICAGO — The former Chief Operating Officer of a suburban Chicago company that sold Covid-19 testing kits has been indicted on federal fraud charges for allegedly embezzling at least $1.8 million in company funds.

DENNIS W. HAGGERTY, JR. issued fraudulent payments from the Willowbrook, Ill.-based company’s bank account for services and goods purportedly provided by himself or the company’s main vendor, a manufacturer from whom the company purchased Covid-19 testing kits, according to an indictment returned Dec. 14, 2023, in U.S. District Court in Chicago.  In reality, the services and goods had not been provided, the indictment states.  The money purportedly sent to the testing-kit supplier was wired to a bank account that Haggerty controlled, and he spent the funds for his personal benefit, the indictment states. 

In addition to the wire transfers, Haggerty allegedly issued checks drawn from the company’s bank account to himself, knowing that he would spend the money for his personal benefit and not the company’s benefit.  Haggerty concealed his fraud by making false and misleading statements on the checks and to the company’s president, the indictment states.

In 2021 and 2022, Haggerty embezzled and fraudulently misappropriated at least approximately $1.8 million from the company, the indictment alleges.

The indictment charges Haggerty, 47, of Burr Ridge, Ill., with five counts of wire fraud.  Arraignment in U.S. District Court in Chicago has not yet been scheduled.  The indictment states that Haggerty committed the embezzlement while free on court-ordered release while another federal fraud case against him was pending.  He was eventually convicted in that case and sentenced in December 2022 to a term of 57 months’ imprisonment.

The indictment was announced by Morris Pasqual, Acting United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, Robert W. “Wes” Wheeler, Jr., Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Field Office of the FBI, and Mario Pinto, Special Agent-in-Charge of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General.  The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney L. Heidi Manschreck.

The public is reminded that an indictment is not evidence of guilt.  The defendant is presumed innocent and entitled to a fair trial at which the government has the burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.  Each count of wire fraud is punishable by up to 20 years in federal prison, to be followed by a consecutive term of up to ten years for each offense committed while under court-ordered release.  If convicted, the Court must impose a reasonable sentence under federal statutes and the advisory U.S. Sentencing Guidelines.