Current:Home > StocksSteward CEO says he won’t comply with Senate subpoena on hospital closings -TradeGrid
Steward CEO says he won’t comply with Senate subpoena on hospital closings
View
Date:2025-04-12 14:55:24
BOSTON (AP) — Steward Health Care CEO Ralph de la Torre won’t comply with a subpoena to appear before a U.S. Senate committee that is investigating the hospital company’s bankruptcy, his lawyers said Wednesday.
De la Torre needs to remain silent to respect an ongoing hospital reorganization and settlement effort, his lawyers said in a letter to Vermont U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, who chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. A federal court order prohibits de la Torre from discussing anything during mediation, the lawyers said.
The Dallas-based Steward, which operated about 30 hospitals nationwide, including more than a half-dozen in Massachusetts, declared bankruptcy earlier this year. It has been trying to sell its hospitals in Massachusetts, but received inadequate bids for two of them: Carney Hospital in Boston and Nashoba Valley Medical Center in the town of Ayer, both of which closed last weekend.
A federal bankruptcy court on Wednesday approved the sale of Steward’s other hospitals in Massachusetts.
Lawyers for de la Torre said the U.S. Senate committee is seeking to turn the hearing into “a pseudo-criminal proceeding in which they use the time, not to gather facts, but to convict Dr. de la Torre in the eyes of public opinion.”
“It is not within this Committee’s purview to make predeterminations of alleged criminal misconduct under the auspices of an examination into Steward’s bankruptcy proceedings, and the fact that its Members have already done so smacks of a veiled attempt to sidestep Dr. de la Torre’s constitutional rights,” the letter said.
De la Torre didn’t rule out testifying before the committee at a later date.
Sanders said in a statement that he’ll be working with other members of the panel to determine the best way to press de la Torre for answers.
“Let me be clear: We will not accept this postponement. Congress will hold Dr. de la Torre accountable for his greed and for the damage he has caused to hospitals and patients throughout America,” Sanders said. “This Committee intends to move forward aggressively to compel Dr. de la Torre to testify to the gross mismanagement of Steward Health Care.”
Massachusetts U.S. Sens. Edward Markey and Elizabeth Warren, both Democrats, called de la Torre’s refusal to appear before the committee next Thursday outrageous.
The committee’s options include holding de la Torre in criminal contempt, which could result in a trial and jail time; or civil contempt, which would result in fines until he appears. Both would require a Senate vote.
Markey and Warren said de la Torre owes the public and Congress answers and must be held in contempt if he fails to appear before the committee.
“He got rich as private equity and real estate vultures picked apart, and drove into bankruptcy, hospitals that employed thousands of health care workers who served communities in Massachusetts and across the country,” the two said in a joint statement.
“De la Torre used hospitals as his personal piggy bank and lived in luxury while gutting Steward hospitals,” they added.
De la Torre also refused invitations to testify at a Boston field hearing earlier this year chaired by Markey.
Sanders has said de la Torre became obscenely wealthy by loading up hospitals from Massachusetts to Arizona with billions of dollars in debt and selling the land underneath the hospitals to real estate executives who charged unsustainably high rents.
veryGood! (8)
Related
- Are Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp down? Meta says most issues resolved after outages
- Niall Horan Teasing Details About One Direction’s Group Chat Is Simply Perfect
- Psychedelic freedom with Tonya Mosley; plus, 'Monica' and ambiguous apologies
- A new nasal spray to reverse fentanyl and other opioid overdoses gets FDA approval
- Warm inflation data keep S&P 500, Dow, Nasdaq under wraps before Fed meeting next week
- A new nasal spray to reverse fentanyl and other opioid overdoses gets FDA approval
- Hunter Biden to appear in court in Delaware in July
- The first office for missing and murdered Black women and girls set for Minnesota
- All That You Wanted to Know About She’s All That
- Exxon Ramps Up Free Speech Argument in Fighting Climate Fraud Investigations
Ranking
- Alex Murdaugh’s murder appeal cites biased clerk and prejudicial evidence
- After Deadly Floods, West Virginia Created a Resiliency Office. It’s Barely Functioning.
- Would Ryan Seacrest Like to Be a Dad One Day? He Says…
- Virtually ouch-free: Promising early data on a measles vaccine delivered via sticker
- Krispy Kreme offers a free dozen Grinch green doughnuts: When to get the deal
- U.S. Military Precariously Unprepared for Climate Threats, War College & Retired Brass Warn
- #BookTok: Here's Your First Look at the Red, White & Royal Blue Movie
- Exxon Pushes Back on California Cities Suing It Over Climate Change
Recommendation
IRS recovers $4.7 billion in back taxes and braces for cuts with Trump and GOP in power
YouTube star Hank Green shares cancer diagnosis
Vanderpump Rules Unseen Clip Exposes When Tom Sandoval Really Pursued Raquel Leviss
Beyond the 'abortion pill': Real-life experiences of individuals taking mifepristone
Bill Belichick's salary at North Carolina: School releases football coach's contract details
Clean Energy Potential Gets Short Shrift in Policymaking, Group Says
In Australia’s Burning Forests, Signs We’ve Passed a Global Warming Tipping Point
Our bodies respond differently to food. A new study aims to find out how