The former office manager of an Illinois medical practice, Aaron J. Rossi, has been sentenced to five years in federal prison and ordered to pay $3 million in restitution. Most of the restitution is due to his former employer after Rossi admitted to filing a false tax return and stealing from the practice. Additionally, Rossi was fined $1 million at his sentencing on July 2, according to Illinois federal court filings.
Illinois medical Officer Tax Fraud : Details of the Fraud
Rossi, who has been in county jail since September for bond violations, was found to have stolen more than $2 million from Central Illinois Orthopedic Surgery. The U.S. Department of Justice revealed that Rossi falsely represented himself as a doctor to patients and wrote counterfeit prescriptions, which included an incident that prevented someone from entering a cancer trial.
Rossi attempted to mitigate his sentencing by arguing that he was inexperienced in finance when he was hired by the orthopedic practice. He claimed in a May sentencing memo that he exploited the practice’s poor accounting to fund his personal expenses. Rossi’s career post-2018 saw him become the CEO of Reditus Laboratories LLC, where he developed COVID-19 testing kits and manufactured personal protective equipment, contributing significantly during the pandemic.
Judicial Decision and Prosecutors’ Arguments
Despite Rossi’s request for time served, U.S. District Judge Sara Darrow imposed a sentence exceeding the federal guidelines, citing the extensive scope of his fraud. Rossi’s calculated sentencing guidelines recommended up to 51 months in prison, but Judge Darrow found these guidelines insufficient to cover the full extent of his fraudulent activities.
