Burr Ridge Man Accused In Mask Swindle: Feds

BURR RIDGE, IL — A Burr Ridge businessman who claimed to be selling top-of-the-line medical masks is accused of swindling two hospitals out of millions of dollars, federal prosecutors said Tuesday.

Dennis W. Haggerty Jr., 44, who has an office in Willowbrook, was charged was one count of wire fraud.

According to a criminal complaint, Haggerty and two business partners formed At Diagnostics in March to sell personal protective equipment. Two big university hospitals — one in Chicago and the other in Iowa City, Iowa — ordered a combined 1 million N95 face masks from the company, the complaint said.

As a deposit on the masks, the hospitals paid more than $3 million into what Haggerty falsely claimed as an At Diagnostics bank account but actually was one solely controlled by himself, prosecutors said.

The complaint states Haggerty spent part of the hospitals' money for his own personal benefit, including buying two Maserati luxury cars and a Land Rover SUV.

When At Diagnostics failed to deliver the masks on time, Haggerty lied to one hospital that his bank had no record of the payment being received, prosecutors said. After his business partners confronted him about the money, he altered a bank statement to make it appear as if the funds had never been received, the complaint said.

To date, Haggerty has failed to return $2.6 million paid by the hospitals for the undelivered masks, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Haggerty could serve up to 20 years in prison for the charge in the complaint.

No one answered the phone at At Diagnostics on Tuesday afternoon.