The vote came after Steward Health Care CEO Ralph de la Torre failed to comply with an order to testify in the company’s bankruptcy case.
DALLAS – The Senate committee investigating the collapse of Dallas-based Steward Health Care on Thursday passed resolutions of civil and criminal contempt against the health system’s CEO for refusing an order to testify before the a group.
The vote came after the CEO of Steward Health Care, Ralph de la Torre, failed to agree to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions for the first time since 1981 to testify in the hearing of Sept. 12.
The committee, unusually, said most of Steward’s misappropriation of funds was by de la Torre, a Dallas resident, and brought his luxury lifestyle, including a yacht and donations to a private school in North Texas, under scrutiny, based on evidence and allegations. from Senators, including Bernie Sanders.
“For months, the committee has been inviting Dr. de la Torre to testify about the financial abuse of Steward Health Care,” Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, said. Each time, he proudly refused.
“Therefore, Dr. de la Torre has given us no choice but to move forward with two decisions to uphold this order and hold him accountable for his actions,” Sanders added.
In a letter to the committee obtained by The Associated Press, de la Torre’s attorney, Alexander Merton, argued that the committee’s forcing de la Torre to testify would violate his constitutional rights. . Merton told the Associated Press that de la Torre would agree to testify at a later date.
“Our concern that the trial will be used to implicate Dr. de la Torre in a counterfeiting case was evident last week, when the Committee called for evidence from witnesses who called Dr. de la Torre and Steward’s management. ‘health care terrorists’ and advocating the imprisonment of Dr. de la Torre,” Merton wrote in the letter.
Both resolutions will go on to the full Senate. The criminal contempt decision will refer the matter to the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia to consider possible criminal charges against de la Torre for failing to comply with the subpoena, according to the committee. The public order directs the Senate Legal Counsel to file a public hearing requiring de la Torre to testify before the committee.
A Senate committee authorized an investigation into the bankruptcy of Steward Health Care on July 24.
What you need to know about Steward Health Care’s bankruptcy and de la Torre’s North Texas connections
Steward Health Care, one of the nation’s largest health systems, filed for bankruptcy in May and has faced the ire of lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. hospitals closed, and faced accusations of inadequate care.
Since then, Steward has been working to sell more than half of its Massachusetts hospitals but received insufficient bids for two other hospitals — Carney Hospital in Boston and Nashoba Valley Medical Center in Ayer County — that both are closed for that reason. , the Associated Press reports.
Meanwhile, Sanders alleged in the lawsuit that de la Torre amassed hundreds of millions of dollars, buying a $40 million yacht and a $15 million fishing boat.
“Working with private equity executives, Dr. de la Torre became obscenely rich by loading hospitals from Massachusetts to Arizona with billions of dollars in debt and selling the land under the hospitals these to real estate managers who charge unreasonably high rents,” Sanders said.
Steward operates about 30 hospitals around the country, including facilities in Texas, Massachusetts and other states, according to their website.
Ralph de la Torre, a former heart surgeon, acquired a controlling stake in Steward in 2010 when private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management acquired the hospital health system. of Massachusetts which he presided over.
De la Torre owns an 11,108-square-foot home in the Preston Hollow neighborhood of Dallas, valued at $7.2 million by the county, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The newspaper reported that de la Torre paid at least $7.2 million in 2022 for the farm 45 kilometers south of Waxahachie.
Sanders’ office said Steward disclosed $3 million in donations to Greenhill School in Addison, where his sons reportedly attend.
“Its quarterly magazine lists de la Torre’s donation as coming from the ‘de la Torre Family Foundation.’ But the only active, tax-exempt foundation in Ralph de la Torre’s name is the Texas-based De La Torre Charitable Trust, which listed just $7,034 in assets at the start of 2022 and reported no donations as of 2021 onwards, public tax returns. show,” a Sanders spokesman told WFAA in Greenhill. “His struggling hospital chain filled the void. Steward Health Care Systems LLC — the corporation that oversees and operates all of Steward’s community hospitals — provided for $3 million to Greenhill School between May and August 2023, according to documents filed in the hospital chain’s lawsuit.
Greenhill opened the Rosa O. Valdes STEM + Innovation Center, a new 52,000-square-foot facility for math, science, technology and robotics classes in March. The center was named after de la Torre’s mother in March, the Wall Street Journal reported.
A Steward Health Care spokeswoman declined to comment on the bankruptcy and did not respond to a request for comment on the addition to Greenhill.
Greenhill School did not respond to a request for comment on the donations.
According to its website, Steward operates five hospitals in Texas — Port Arthur, Odessa, Big Spring, Houston and Texarkana. Healthcare Systems of America (HSA) recently took over the operations of Steward’s Medical Center in Southeast Texas and St. Joseph Medical Center in Houston.
It’s not clear how many people the hospital system employs in Texas or its headquarters overlooking Klyde Warren Park.
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