Former CEO of Chicago hospital gets 21 months for perjury

Peter Rogan, the former president and CEO of now-defunct Edgewater Hospital and Medical Center in Chicago, has been sentenced to 21 months in prison for perjury, according to a Chicago Tribune report.

Mr. Rogan's 21-month sentence is more than what was requested by his attorney, Thomas Breen, who asked for a one-year sentence under a plea agreement reached in September.

The sentence culminated more than a decade of deceit by Mr. Rogan, who prosecutors say shredded documents and lied about his assets as authorities tried to trace his bank accounts worldwide, according to the report. It also came about four months after he returned to Chicago from Canada, where he had been hiding, to face charges of perjury and obstruction of justice stemming from the hospital's financial collapse in 2002.

Edgewater Medical Center closed in December 2001 and filed for bankruptcy a year later.

Around the time of the hospital's financial collapse, federal charges alleged massive healthcare fraud involving payment of kickbacks for patient referrals and medically unnecessary hospital admissions, tests and services, according to the report. Four physicians, a vice president and the hospital's management company pleaded guilty to federal criminal healthcare fraud charges.

In 2011, Mr. Rogan was charged with one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice, one count of obstruction of justice and two counts of perjury. The government claimed Mr. Rogan performed fraudulent activity to thwart efforts by the government and a bank creditor to collect $188 million in civil judgments against him.

The government specifically alleged Mr. Rogan conspired with his former attorney to impede collection efforts from 2002 to 2010 through the use of off-shore bank accounts. The government claimed Mr. Rogan's fraudulent action played a significant role in Edgewater's financial collapse.

To escape the charges brought against him, Mr. Rogan fled to Canada but was taken into custody by U.S. marshals in June after a years-long extradition fight.

According to the Chicago Tribune, some funds were recovered from a trust and other assets, but Mr. Rogan still owes tens of millions of dollars as part of separate civil proceedings against him.

 

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