Peter Rogan hid from the feds in Canada for more than seven years.
The former Chicago hospital executive destroyed more than 60 boxes of records that would have revealed “God knows what,” and he skipped his son’s wedding to avoid service of a civil citation throughout his “more-than-a-decade’s worth” of “lies, obstruction, contempt and conspiratorial conduct,” prosecutors said.
Now Rogan, 69, will spend less than two years in prison after admitting last month to committing perjury by lying about his ability to control a trust fund in the Bahamas as the government tried to collect on a $64.3 million judgment. U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber sentenced Rogan on Wednesday to 21 months in prison, the maximum allowed under Rogan’s plea deal with prosecutors.
“Peter G. Rogan worships the golden calf,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros said. “That golden calf that he worships is money.”
The former Edgewater Medical Center at 5700 W. Ashland in Chicago. | File photo
Thomas Breen, Rogan’s attorney, said in court filings his client has “been villainized in the press and in civil lawsuits.” Breen told the judge that sentencing “is not a vindictive moment in the criminal justice system,” and he asked Leinenweber to sentence the ex-owner of Edgewater Hospital and Medical Center to a year and a day in prison.
Rogan, dressed in an orange jumpsuit, apologized in court.
“I accept responsibility for my false affidavit,” Rogan said.
But faced with $188 million in judgments won by the feds and Dexia Credit Local bank, Boutros said Rogan forced authorities to scour the globe for his money like Captain Ahab in “Moby-Dick.” Rogan “magically” decided to return to Chicago in June, Boutros said.
Even then, prosecutors alleged this week that Rogan’s lies didn’t stop. Rogan allegedly claimed after returning to Chicago to have only $800 in monthly income, all from Social Security. His wife allegedly claimed to make only $850 a month from the same source. Meanwhile, prosecutors said in a court filing that Rogan paid between $4,000 and $5,000 monthly to rent a Vancouver penthouse since 2006. And Rogan’s wife allegedly paid $2,000 a month for a Valparaiso home since 2008.
Between 2009 and 2015, prosecutors said Rogan’s sister funneled more than $600,000 from an account in her name to Rogan’s Canadian attorneys, his landlord, his three children and his wife. Prosecutors said Rogan turned out to be an additional accountholder, and his former business office in Merrillville was also associated with the account.
“His will to lie has not been broken yet,” Boutros said Wednesday. “And he needs to be incapacitated.”
Rogan moved to Canada in 2006, fought extradition and finally returned to Chicago in June to face 2008 criminal charges stemming from the operation of his now-shuttered hospital. Prosecutors said earlier this year he faced a maximum 50 years in prison and a $1 million fine.
Last month, Rogan pleaded guilty to filing a false affidavit on Dec. 21, 2006, in which he claimed to have no control over the trust fund in the Bahamas. The affidavit read, “I have no control over the Irrevocable Trust or its distribution to the beneficiaries …,” according to Rogan’s plea agreement.
But Boutros said a “secret, hidden letter of wishes” actually spelled out Rogan’s intentions for the money. Signed by Rogan, it contained a very specific instruction, according to the plea deal: “Please distribute all of the income of the Trust to me upon receipt by the Trust.”
The prosecutor called that plea agreement a “global resolution” to Rogan’s lengthy saga with the federal court system. It also required prosecutors to ask U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly to dismiss a contempt proceeding he oversaw against Rogan. Kennelly obliged.
Edgewater Hospital closed in 2001 and entered into bankruptcy the next year after four doctors, a vice president and the management company running the hospital pleaded guilty to federal health care fraud charges involving the payment of kickbacks for patient referrals. In turn, those patients got hospital tests and other services that weren’t medically necessary.
Rogan wasn’t charged criminally at the time, but in 2002, the government sued him for filing millions of dollars in false claims to Medicare and Medicaid. The government won a $64.3 million judgment, and a judge found Rogan lied on the stand, destroyed documents and obstructed justice. Another $124 million judgment against him in favor of Dexia ultimately brought the total sought from the former hospital executive to more than $188 million.
The government went after money it believed Rogan held in offshore accounts, but Rogan said he had no control over the money. The government charged him criminally with lying about that.
The feds say that offshore money was used to pay for Rogan’s wife’s expenses as well as service and maintenance of a 48-foot boat named “Fringe Benefit.”
Rogan moved to Vancouver in 2006 and was arrested there in 2008 by the Canadian Border Services Agency when he returned from a trip to China. He had been free on bond but fought his extradition to the United States.
