The $20 million fraud scheme that almost never ended
By Kristen Schorsch October 29, 2013
Two physicians with a string of suburban women's health clinics allege that a North Side bank missed more than two decades of red flags, allowing two former employees to steal $20 million.
Drs. Vijay Goyal and Vinod Goyal accuse Devon Bank of “turning a blind eye” to the alleged fraud for 21 years, according to a complaint filed on Oct. 16 in Cook County Circuit Court. The husband-and-wife physician team own 11 for-profit health centers in the Chicago area, including Arlington Heights-based Affiliated Health Group Ltd. and Downers Grove-based Access Health Center Ltd.
A spokesman for Devon Bank, which was founded nearly 70 years ago by a group of local merchants, declined to comment.
The case raises questions about the banking practices of Devon, which has assets of $233 million and is located near the intersection of Devon and Western avenues. But it also highlights the importance for medical practices to audit their books regularly and establish procedures to catch financial discrepancies, even if their money is under the watchful eye of friends and family.
“You never know who it's going to be,” Steven Lewis, a director at Chicago-based accounting firm Ostrow Reisin Berk & Abram Ltd., said of potential thieves. “It's usually your trusted person.”
In addition to the bank, the complaint names as a defendant Irina Nakhshin, a former employee whose duties included entering medical insurance payments into computers at the physicians' offices, the complaint says.
But Ms. Nakshin and another former employee, Inna Koganshats, opened accounts at Devon Bank in the names of ventures nearly identical to ventures that the physicians actually controlled, the complaint says. The Goyals did not have other accounts at Devon, according to the complaint.
In a series of “highly irregular or highly suspicious” transactions, the two women wrongfully deposited checks into their accounts checks that were intended for the Goyals or their businesses, the complaint says.
The bank ignored “red flags” about the transactions, even though it was equipped with software programs and other procedures to detect such frauds, the lawsuit said.
The practice apparently continued until this year, though it's not clear what triggered the discovery.
Drs. Goyal and Goyal did not return a message to comment. Their attorney, Devon Bruce, a partner at Chicago-based Power Rogers & Smith PC, called the case a “tragic incident of embezzlement.”
“It is clear from the available evidence that Devon Bank repeatedly violated reasonable commercial banking standards,” Mr. Bruce said.
Ms. Nakhshin and Ms. Koganshats could not be reached to comment.
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