Image by Cleveland Clinic

By Ari Feldman October 13, 2017

A former Cleveland Clinic executive pleaded guilty this week to helping defraud the hospital out of $2.7 million, the Cleveland Jewish News reported. Gary Fingerhut was dismissed from his position as director of innovations in 2015 after the FBI alerted the hospital to his role in a massive fraud scheme.

Authorities say that Fingerhut paid out large sums of money to a shell company for services and products that didn’t exist. Fingerhut, 57, received nearly $500,000 for his role in the scheme. Prosecutors are seeking to force Fingerhut to pay back the entire $2.7 million dollars defrauded from the Clinic.

Fingerhut is expected to receive a sentence of between 41 and 51 months in prison.

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“Certainly, Mr. Fingerhut is extremely sorry for what he did,” said J. Timothy Bender, Fingerhut’s attorney. “He has admitted his guilt and is hopeful that the consequences, both for himself or the Cleveland Clinic, are not too severe.”

Contact Ari Feldman at [email protected] or on Twitter @aefeldman.

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