Steward Well being CEO pleads Fifth earlier than Senate contempt vote
The highest govt of the bankrupt hospital chain Steward Well being Care advised senators he’ll use his Fifth Modification proper to keep away from answering questions beneath a subpoena licensed by a Senate committee.
Steward CEO Ralph de la Torre invoked his proper in opposition to self-incrimination quite than present sworn testimony in a “pseudo-criminal continuing with the objective of convicting (de la Torre) in a court docket of public opinion,” his legal professional mentioned in a letter Wednesday to Senate officers.
The letter comes at some point earlier than the Senate Committee on Well being, Training, Labor and Pensions is scheduled to vote on resolutions searching for civil enforcement and a prison contempt referral to the US Legal professional as a result of de la Torre refused to seem earlier than the committee beneath subpoena.
Final week, de la Torre defied a subpoena by not showing earlier than the bipartisan Senate committee to reply questions concerning the Dallas-based hospital chain’s monetary dealings. The listening to featured an empty seat with de la Torre’s title placard and testimony from hospital staff and elected officers who described how Steward’s hospitals lacked enough provides and staffing, endangering some sufferers.
However in his letter Wednesday, de la Torre reiterated that he “lacks the authority to talk on behalf ofSteward with respect to the continuing chapter proceedings and he’s prohibited by a federal court docket order from doing so.”
He added final week’s listening to was an “ambush” as witnesses advocated he be imprisoned and described him and different Steward executives as “well being care terrorists.”
He refused to offer sworn testimony throughout a listening to that forged him “as a prison scapegoat for the systemic failuresin Massachusetts’ well being care system,” the letter mentioned.
The hospital chain filed for chapter in Might, closed two hospitals in Massachusetts and struck offers to promote different services.
Steward Well being Care was fashioned in 2010 when the personal fairness agency Cerberus Capital Administration acquired a struggling nonprofit hospital chain from the Archdiocese of Boston. The corporate aggressively expanded to a series of greater than 30 hospitals using greater than 30,000 folks.
The embattled CEO has drawn criticism from Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, and others for gathering profitable compensation and buying a multimillion greenback yacht and fishing boat despite the fact that the hospital chain struggled financially.
Steward bought the land beneath its hospitals to a company landlord, Medical Properties Belief. The sale-leaseback deal left the hospitals with hefty lease funds in a transfer scrutinized by state lawmakers from Massachusetts to Louisiana.
In a bipartisan vote in July, a Senate committee licensed the subpoena mandating de la Torre testify on Sept. 12 to debate the bankrupt hospital chain’s monetary dealings.
The Senate HELP committee on Thursday will vote on two resolutions. One would instruct the Senate’s counsel to file a U.S. District Courtroom civil swimsuit to require de la Torre to adjust to the subpoena. The second decision would request the U.S. Legal professional for the District of Columbia to criminally prosecute de la Torre for his failure to seem.
