Tag Archives: System of Internal Controls

Ex-revenue cycle director gets prison time for embezzling from Delaware hospital

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https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/legal-regulatory-issues/ex-revenue-cycle-director-gets-prison-time-for-embezzling-from-delaware-hospital.html?origin=cfoe&utm_source=cfoe

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Hope Abram, a former revenue cycle director at Lewes, Del.-based Beebe Healthcare, has been sentenced to prison for embezzling more than $100,000 from Beebe Healthcare, according to the Salisbury Daily Times.

Ms. Abram was arrested earlier this year after Beebe Healthcare officials alerted police of a potential internal embezzlement. A standard audit of receivables and payments pointed to several irregularities tied to Ms. Abram. She recently pleaded guilty to theft of greater than $100,000 in connection with the incidents.

Between February and May of 2017, Ms. Abram requested refund checks for fictitious people. When the checks were returned, she deposited them into her personal account.

Ms. Abram was sentenced to 25 years in prison, but much of it was suspended. She will serve two years in federal prison followed by home confinement. In addition to the prison term, Ms. Abram was ordered to pay $201,451 in restitution, according to the report.

CEO of Louisiana hospital’s fundraising arm fired after embezzlement probe

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https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/legal-regulatory-issues/ceo-of-louisiana-hospital-s-fundraising-arm-fired-after-embezzlement-probe.html

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The long-time president and CEO of Our Lady of the Lake Foundation, the fundraising arm that supports Baton Rouge, La.-based Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center, was fired after a third-party investigation revealed “a pattern of forgery and embezzlement of funds,” according to The Advocate.

John Paul Funes, who led several multimillion-dollar fundraising campaigns for the hospital, headed the foundation for more than 10 years.

“We are shocked and appalled at what we have learned,” Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center said in a statement. “Our Lady of the Lake Foundation is integral to our healing ministry and helped us reach so many important goals that would have been unattainable otherwise.”

The hospital declined to release additional details pending the criminal investigation, according to the report.

“Mr. Funes’ actions in no way represent the values and mission of the Our Lady of the Lake and the Foundation, and the hundreds of volunteers and donors who have given so much over the years,” the hospital’s statement reads.

 

 

Ex-director of finance accused of embezzling $3M from North Carolina hospital

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https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/legal-regulatory-issues/ex-director-of-finance-accused-of-embezzling-3m-from-north-carolina-hospital.html

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High Point (N.C.) Regional Hospital’s former director of finance is accused of stealing more than $3 million from the hospital between Jan. 1, 2003, and Aug. 15, 2017, according to WXII 12 News.

According to a federal indictment, Kimberly Russell Hobson defrauded the hospital by issuing unauthorized and forged checks payable to herself and relatives. She’s also accused of using the hospital’s credit cards for personal expenses.

Ms. Hobson used money embezzled from the hospital to purchase luxury vehicles, a motorcycle and other items for personal use, according to court documents.

Ms. Hobson is charged with seven counts of wire fraud, two counts of bank fraud, five counts of aggravated identity theft, and one count of possessing and uttering counterfeit securities, according to the report.

A spokesperson for High Point Regional Hospital told WXII 12 News Ms. Hobson was removed from her position at the hospital last summer.

 

Ex-Cleveland Clinic Innovation executive pleads guilty in $2.7M fraud case, prison time likely

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http://www.fiercehealthcare.com/antifraud/ex-cleveland-clinics-innovation-executive-pleads-guilty-2-7m-fraud-case-prison-time?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal&mrkid=959610&mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiWkRSalkyTXpOV0V4WkRkayIsInQiOiJHQUVNRTJhUmhhSkpXVk80NkJoOWo5R21nNW5iV0hQS3NxRzc4SUQrbmRyMFwveXlBUFEwRm83TXFUemp0ZE9aNWlBTmYzSVJWb0dzbXV0RTczYnZSTEFMaGhEeFZKYk9LMWJuaXNxUlRUd2V6WEZnZ3lqRUpYaWp6SU0rbUhUd0cifQ==

Money, handcuffs and a stethoscope

The former head of Cleveland Clinic Innovations pleaded guilty Tuesday for his role in defrauding the nonprofit academic medical center out of more than $2.7 million via a shell company.

Gary Fingerhut was arraigned in U.S. District Court and pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and honest services fraud and one count of making false statements, Crain’s Cleveland Business reports.

Although he won’t be formally sentenced until Jan. 30, Fingerhut’s attorney told the publication that federal prosecutors will ask U.S. District Judge Christopher Boyko for a sentence of between 41 and 51 months in federal prison. He may also be ordered to pay restitution to the Cleveland Clinic.

Fingerhut served as the executive director of the clinic’s innovation arm for two years until an FBI investigation revealed in 2015 that he was involved in a fraudulent scheme with the chief technology officer of a spinoff company to contract with a company that never intended to perform or provide any goods and services. The deal was in violation of Cleveland Clinic’s ethics and compliance policies and requirements, which prohibit employees from receiving any financial benefit from companies the Clinic did business with, and the organization fired Fingerhut.

Federal prosecutors said Fingerhut accepted at least $469,000 in payments in return for not disclosing the fraud scheme, which diverted nearly $3 million from the Clinic.

Fingerhut’s attorney, J. Timothy Bender of Bender, Alexander & Broome in Cleveland, told Crain’s that Fingerhut is very sorry for his role in the fraud scheme.

Former director of finance charged with embezzling $1.5M from UNC hospital

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http://www.beckershospitalreview.com/legal-regulatory-issues/former-director-of-finance-charged-with-embezzling-1-5m-from-unc-hospital.html

Kimberly R Hobson

The former director of finance for UNC Regional Physicians was charged Tuesday with embezzling more than $1.5 million while she worked at High Point (N.C.) Regional Health, part of Chapel Hill, N.C.-based UNC Health Care.

The former High Point Regional Health employee, Kimberly Hobson, was charged with felonious embezzlement, according to the Winston-Salem Journal.

Hospital officials discovered the alleged embezzlement July 28 and subsequently fired Ms. Hobson.

She is being held at High Point jail on $1 million bail. Her next court date is set for Sept. 15.

The investigation into the alleged embezzlement is ongoing on the state and federal levels, according to the report.

Are CEOs Less Ethical Than in the Past?

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https://www.strategy-business.com/feature/Are-CEOs-Less-Ethical-Than-in-the-Past?gko=50774&utm_source=itw&utm_medium=20170516&utm_campaign=resp

The job of a chief executive officer at a large publicly held company may seem to be quite comfortable — high pay, excellent benefits, elevated social status, and access to private jets. But the comfortable perch is increasingly becoming a hot seat, especially when CEOs and their employees cross red lines.

As this year’s CEO Success study shows, boards of directors, institutional investors, governments, and the media are holding chief executives to a far higher level of accountability for corporate fraud and ethical lapses than they did in the past. Over the last several years, CEOs have often garnered headlines for all the wrong reasons: for misleading regulators and investors; for cutting corners; and for failing to detect, correct, or prevent unethical or illegal conduct in their organization. Some high-profile cases, involving some of the world’s largest corporations, have featured oil companies bribing government officials and banks defrauding customers.

To be sure, the number of CEOs who are forced from office for ethical lapses remains quite small: There were only 18 such cases at the world’s 2,500 largest public companies in 2016. But firings for ethical lapses have been rising as a percentage of all CEO successions. (We define dismissals for ethical lapses as the removal of the CEO as the result of a scandal or improper conduct by the CEO or other employees; examples include fraud, bribery, insider trading, environmental disasters, inflated resumes, and sexual indiscretions. See “Methodology,” below.) Globally, dismissals for ethical lapses rose from 3.9 percent of all successions in 2007–11 to 5.3 percent in 2012–16, a 36 percent increase. The increase was more dramatic in North America and Western Europe. In our sample of successions at the largest companies there (those in the top quartile by market capitalization globally), dismissals for ethical lapses rose from 4.6 percent of all successions in 2007–11 to 7.8 percent in 2012–16, a 68 percent increase.

http://www.beckershospitalreview.com/hospital-management-administration/ceo-turnover-for-misbehavior-up-36-worldwide.html