In addition, corporations and their employees, including their attorneys - like everyone else - have a duty to tell the truth when they speak to investigators or testify under oath. No one has the right to withhold documents from the Court or to lie about the facts to investigators or, worse yet, under oath in Court," he added.

Mr. Grant noted that the indictment brings to eight the number of defendants who have been indicted in recent months in connection with alleged bribery and procurement fraud in Cook County's hospital system. "We are determined to ensure that public contracts, especially those in the lucrative healthcare industry, are obtained based on merit and are not tainted by corruption. The investigation is continuing," he said.


The defendants and the charges are as follows:
Siemens Medical Solutions USA, Inc., formerly known as Siemens Medical Systems - one count of wire fraud and one count of mail fraud. Based in Malvern, Pa., SMS is the wholly-owned U.S. medical supply subsidiary of Siemens AG, which is publicly-traded and headquartered in Erlangen, Germany. SMS, which has a field office in suburban Hoffman Estates and is one of the world's largest suppliers to the healthcare industry, owned 70 percent of DD Industries, LLC, (also known as Siemens/Faustech), the joint venture entity that was formed to bid on and was awarded the Stroger Hospital radiology contract; Faust Villazan, - one count each of wire fraud, mail fraud and bribery. Villazan, 44, of Western Springs, was the chief executive officer and sole owner of Faustech Industries; Faustech Industries, Inc. - one count each of wire fraud, mail fraud and bribery. Faustech, then located in suburban River Grove, was certified by Cook County as a minority business enterprise. On paper, Faustech owned 30 percent of DD Industries; Daniel Desmond - one count each of wire fraud, mail fraud and perjury. Desmond, 43, of Arlington Heights, was the district business administrator of the SMS office in Hoffman Estates and the president of DD Industries, the bidding entity that was named after him; and Ellen Roth - one count each of wire fraud, mail fraud and making false statements to the FBI. Roth, 61, of Ridgewood, N.J., was an in-house attorney for Siemens USA. She was the principal corporate decision-maker responsible for creating DD Industries and drafting certain portions of the radiology bid package, including a sworn statement submitted by DD Industries attesting to the Siemens-Faustech joint venture arrangement.

All five defendants will be arraigned at a later date in U.S. District Court in Chicago. A status hearing previously was set for Jan. 25 on the bribery charges that were filed last September against Villazan and Faustech. The case is assigned to U.S. District Judge John Darrah. On May 15, 2000, Cook County officials announced they were seeking bids for a complete turnkey package - known as Bid Package No. 3 - for radiology equipment and a Picture Archiving and Communication System for a new hospital on the west side of Chicago. DD Industries was among three entities that bid on the contract. Under a county ordinance in place at the time, bidders were required to set aside at least 30 percent of such contracts for the participation of certified minority businesses. If the MBE requirement was to be satisfied by a joint venture, the county required that MBE must share in the ownership, control, management responsibilities, risks and profits in proportion with the MBE ownership percentage, that the MBE partner be responsible for clearly defined portion of the work using its own workforce and equipment, and the MBE must perform work that it has the skill and expertise to perform and which is clearly designated in a joint venture agreement.

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