Judge’s grand jury threat triggers feds to drop charges

One day after a federal judge warned she could hold a hearing over grand jury misconduct that might put Chicago U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros on the witness stand, federal prosecutors permanently dropped charges against two co-defendants in a $300 million fraud

A courtroom warning landed fast, and by the next day federal prosecutors had moved to blunt the impact.

One day after a federal judge threatened to hold a hearing that could have put Chicago U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros on the witness stand, Boutros’ office moved to avoid it by permanently dropping charges against two defendants in a massive $300 million fraud prosecution.

The late Thursday development means damage from the tainted “Broadview Six” case—which nearly went to trial as a misdemeanor matter—has now officially spread to a far more serious prosecution involving former Loretto Hospital chief financial officer Anosh Ahmed. The federal government is not dropping charges against Ahmed. He has been held in Serbia and is fighting extradition.

Instead, the prosecutors moved Thursday to drop charges against Ahmed’s former co-defendants: Mahmood Sami Khan and Suhaib Ahmad Chaudhry.

Still, the timing makes clear what Boutros’ office is trying to avoid. The criminal charges were dropped. and the decision appears tied to whether prosecutors would be forced into sworn testimony about the misconduct scandal that has rocked the Dirksen Federal Courthouse over the last three weeks. A Boutros spokesperson could not be reached for comment.

The judge at the center of the latest turn was U.S. District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman. On Wednesday. she forced the issue by telling federal prosecutors she would hold a hearing on June 17—and warning them they had one way out. Coleman didn’t spell out the exact path for avoiding the hearing. but she said a prosecutor would know what to do.

Most likely, she meant that Boutros’ office would have to permanently drop charges against Khan and Chaudhry. Now it has, a little more than 24 hours later. Even so, the move doesn’t automatically end the matter. Coleman must still agree to grant the feds’ motion dropping the charges and cancel next week’s hearing.

What comes next is bound up with something another judge called a “credibility crisis” created by Boutros’ leadership team—an assessment that has been growing sharper as the Broadview Six prosecution unraveled and other cases came under scrutiny.

The chain of events goes back exactly three weeks. That’s when Boutros announced the permanent dismissal of charges against the remaining defendants in the prosecution of the “Broadview Six.” The case began last fall with a conspiracy indictment against six Operation Midway Blitz protesters. It was later pared down to a misdemeanor matter against four of the protestors.

Then, on May 21, Boutros dropped the case entirely after U.S. District Judge April Perry discovered apparent misconduct by Assistant U.S. Attorney Sheri Mecklenburg during grand jury proceedings.

Perry said Mecklenburg’s alleged behavior included improperly putting her credibility on the line to support criminal charges. wrongly dismissing grand jurors from the proceedings. and having conversations with grand jurors outside the grand jury room. Perry also said the problematic behavior had been redacted out of transcripts provided to her by the feds.

Boutros told the judge he learned of the improprieties in late April.

Those revelations triggered a review of other cases handled by Mecklenburg, including high-profile prosecutions tied to Loretto Hospital.

Khan and Chaudhry’s case is described as part of a single, widespread scheme. The case contends that prosecutors sought reimbursement from the United States Health Resources and Services Administration for more than $800 million in false claims for COVID-19 testing of uninsured individuals. The alleged scheme ran from June 2021 through March 2022. according to Mecklenburg’s writing—ending when the government program ran out of money.

The false claims, prosecutors said in the indictment, resulted in payouts totaling $293 million.

After the Broadview Six case fell apart. defense attorneys for Khan and Chaudhry accused Mecklenburg of misconduct similar to what happened in the protesters’ prosecution. They also accused Mecklenburg of “inflammatory characterizations of the defendants,” including name-calling and what they described as folk-wisdom metaphors.

On Wednesday, Coleman took the bench to address those claims and made clear she planned to hold a hearing. She invited defense attorneys to think about who they’d like to put on the witness stand.

“I’m a lifelong prosecutor,” Coleman told lawyers in the courtroom. “Federal and state level. I know this circle. I know this sphere. And so the court wants to do right by this.”

Coleman also told a prosecutor representing Boutros’ office that there were “a lot of people in your sphere that I’m assuming are going to be asked to come testify.” She then added, “you may want to avoid that.”

By Thursday. Boutros’ office moved to avoid that hearing by permanently dropping charges against Khan and Chaudhry—leaving Ahmed to face the case as he continues to fight extradition from Serbia. Coleman’s approval is still required for the dismissal and for canceling the June 17 proceeding. but the immediate effect is already visible: the fallout from the “Broadview Six” misconduct finding is now written into a second. more serious federal prosecution tied to Loretto.

grand jury misconduct Andrew Boutros Sharon Johnson Coleman Broadview Six Sheri Mecklenburg Loretto Hospital Anosh Ahmed Mahmood Sami Khan Suhaib Ahmad Chaudhry Dirksen Federal Courthouse health fraud COVID-19 testing reimbursement