Damage from the “Broadview Six” case officially began to spread Tuesday, with defense attorneys in the high-profile case against an ex-Loretto Hospital executive and others claiming that misconduct allegations against a Broadview prosecutor were known for months.
“There is reason to believe that the United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois was aware of allegations related to [the prosecutor] at least several months ago, when the defense in the Broadview Six case began pushing for disclosures,” wrote defense attorneys Gabrielle Sansonetti and Patrick Blegen.
Sansonetti and Blegen represent Mahmood Sami Khan, who was once employed by onetime Loretto chief financial officer Anosh Ahmed. They are now charged together in a fraud case formerly handled by Sheri Mecklenburg, the onetime lead prosecutor in the “Broadview Six” case.
Also charged in the case related to Loretto Hospital are Mohamed Sirajudeen and Suhaib Ahmad Chaudhry.
Mecklenburg wrote earlier this year that the case arose “out of a single, widespread scheme to submit more than $800 million in false claims to the United States Health Resources and Services Administration … for reimbursement of COVID-19 testing of uninsured individuals.”
The scheme lasted from June 2021 to March 2022, Mecklenburg wrote, “when the government program ran out of money.”
Khan’s defense attorneys say that case should now be permanently dismissed, just as the Broadview case was last week.
Their motion doesn’t mention Mecklenburg by name, but she is the only prosecutor involved in both cases.
Sansonetti and Blegen wrote that prosecutors disclosed potential misconduct in the fraud case involving Ahmed and Khan during a meeting Friday. Specifically, they were told of potential “vouching” — in which a prosecutor improperly puts their credibility on the line to push an indictment.
The defense attorneys were told prosecutors planned to seek a new indictment to cure any potential taint.
U.S. District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman presides over the case.
Meanwhile, the “Broadview Six” case is quickly creating the biggest credibility crisis in recent memory for the U.S. attorney’s office. It’s been less than a week since U.S. District Judge April Perry revealed alleged misconduct she’d discovered during grand jury proceedings in the case.
In addition to “vouching,” the allegations included a prosecutor having substantive contact with grand jurors outside the grand jury room, and a prosecutor excusing grand jurors who disagreed with the case.
On Tuesday, a defense attorney told Perry he had reason to believe U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros also had contact with grand jurors in the case. Boutros’ office insisted he’d not “appeared before any grand jury on any particular case” since taking the helm at the U.S. attorney’s office in April 2025.
The Chicago Sun-Times first reported Friday that the damage could spread to the feds’ prosecution of Ahmed. Boutros confirmed an “ongoing” review of other grand jury presentations that might have been tainted like the “Broadview Six.”
Such a review was likely to touch cases involving the same prosecutors from that case.