Former Chief Operating Officer of Illinois Hospital Sentenced to Prison for Embezzling Hospital Funds

CHICAGO - The former Chief Operating Officer of an Illinois hospital has been sentenced to a year and a half in federal prison for illegally pocketing more than $620,000 in hospital funds.

ROBERT SPADONI was an attorney who worked as a Vice President and COO of the hospital. From 2013 to 2021, Spadoni orchestrated a scheme in which he approved payment of invoices to a vendor company that purportedly provided the hospital with administrative support and compliance services. In reality, the vendor company - Medical Education Solutions, Inc. - had been established by Spadoni for the purpose of executing the scheme. Spadoni's family member opened a bank account in the company's name and steered the hospital's payments into it. Spadoni concealed the fraud scheme by paying $1,500 a month in cash to another hospital employee to actually provide the administrative and compliance services.

As a result of the fraud scheme, Spadoni obtained approximately $622,500 in payments from the hospital. Spadoni used the money for his own benefit, including restaurant meals and hotel stays, as well as transferring $225,805 into a 401(k) account he controlled.

Spadoni, 59, of Darien, Ill., pleaded guilty earlier this year to a mail fraud charge. In addition to the prison term, U.S. District Judge Matthew F. Kennelly on Tuesday ordered Spadoni to pay $622,500 in restitution to the hospital.

The sentence was announced by Morris Pasqual, Acting United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, Robert W. "Wes" Wheeler, Jr., Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Field Office of the FBI, and Kwame Raoul, Illinois Attorney General. The government was represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Chester Choi.