Governor Rick Scott Is Still Hiding Money

Posted on September 23, 2013 by Guest Blogger •

This year the Florida Legislature passed a new blind trust law. The ink had not dried on Gov. Rick Scott’s signature before he decided to test the new law. Scott wanted to make sure the money he had made documented on his questionable personal portfolio was in line with the new law, a law that he and his Republican cronies helped write.

Rick Scott made sure he “stacked the deck” beforehand. According to the Tampa Bay Times, five of (the Ethics Commission) nine members (were) appointed by the governor. “The governor has hit all the requirements of the statute,” said the panel’s general counsel Christopher Anderson, who added that Scott was “ahead of the game” in 2011 and complies with the new law.

Governor Rick Scott

Scott asked for the commission’s opinion to ensure the blind trust complies with a new law. “The governor has hit all the requirements of the statute,” said Anderson.
The voting public conveniently forgets what Scott did. The Sun Sentinel reports that Scott perpetrated fraud that “ was and still is the biggest Medicare fraud case in U.S. history and ended with the hospital giant Columbia/HCA paying a record $1.7 billion in fines, penalties and damages.” Scott was co-founder and CEO of Columbia/HCA in the 1990s, when the FBI launched a massive, multi-state investigation that led to the company pleading guilty to criminal charges of overbilling the government.
If fines and penalties of $1.7 Billion are any indication that big money was made then one must think there was a lot of it. Medicare insurance fraud is big money and Rick Scott made a bunch of it. The Tallahassee Democrat indicated that the amount of money that may have been made, “When Scott first sought office, he reported a net worth of $218 million, while the filing he turned in earlier this summer showed that his net worth was nearly $84 million as of the end of 2012.”
The fact that Scott refuses to take any money for being governor, 12-cents a year, allows him to do, basically, whatever he wants when filling out financial disclosure forms. It seems doubtful the state of Florida’s Republican Legislature really cares what he makes. The state is saving $130,00 in salary per year. NorthEscambia.com reported that “Gov. Rick Scott was worth $83.77 million as he wrapped up his second year in office, according to a newly posted financial disclosure form. The blind trust, which accounts for $72.8 million, made $3.1 million in interest last year.”
Dan Krassner, executive director of Integrity Florida, questioned the independence of the blind trust since the company managing Scott’s account — Hollow Brook Wealth Management — included Scott’s portfolio manager for 10 years. An accountant at the company also worked for Scott for 12 years. Old cronies? It must depend on who’s asking.
The question here is not whether Scott is crooked but just how much of that crooked money did he keep? Think about it when standing in the voting booth next year.
http://www.ringoffireradio.com/2013/09/governor-rick-scott-still-hiding-money/

Florida Hired Law Firm With Ties To Gov. Rick Scott

By GARY FINEOUT

Associated Press

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Florida has spent nearly a half-million dollars - and could spend even more - with a large, well-known law firm that has connections to both the Republican Party of Florida as well as Gov. Rick Scott.
Since August the state has paid nearly $400,000 to the law firm of Alston and Bird to defend a new state law that requires public employees to contribute 3 percent of their pay to the state pension fund.
The firm was hired at the urging of the Scott administration which asked Attorney General Pam Bondi to approve paying the firm hourly rates at $495 an hour or nearly $300 more than what is normally allowed.
The Scott administration and Bondi have defended the hiring of the firm, saying it specializes in the kind of litigation that the state is now involved in.



General Pam Bondi

 But the firm's roster also includes a one-time business associate of Scott.
While not working directly on the lawsuit, a senior counsel with the firm's Washington D.C. office is Thomas Scully. Scully is also a general partner with the New York investment firm of Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe. That's the investment firm that this June purchased Scott's shares in Solantic, a chain of urgent care clinics the governor started back in 2001.
Scully, who once led the Federation of American Hospitals, was appointed to the board of directors of Solantic back in 2008.
Scott last year valued his shares in Solantic at $62 million. He initially transferred his ownership interest to his wife's revocable trust prior to taking office in January. But then Scott sold the shares amid questions as to whether he could benefit financially from state efforts to privatize Medicaid and require drug testing for welfare recipients. Scott maintained that Solantic would not seek state contracts and said he was just too busy as governor to spend time overseeing business interests.

Scott, the former head of the massive Columbia/HCA hospital chain, said that he has known Scully for 20 years. But he said on Tuesday that he didn't know that Scully worked for Alston and Bird.
"I knew that he was with a firm in D.C. but I didn't know the name of the firm," Scott told The Associated Press.
Alston and Bird has offices in Brussels and across the nation, including Atlanta, but none in Florida. The firm is involved in a wide-range of areas, ranging from work it did as an examiner on the bankruptcy of Enron to lobbying in Washington D.C.
The firm conducted a forensic audit last year on behalf of the Republican Party of Florida that concluded that former Gov. Charlie Crist and former party chairman Jim Greer had misspent party money. Crist, who bolted the Republican Party last spring to run for the U.S. Senate as an independent, blasted the audit at the time and denied he let the party pay for vacations he took.



Gov. Charlie Crist

 Federal campaign records from last year and early this year show that the Republican Party paid nearly $200,000 to Alston and Bird for its work.
Alston and Bird was first hired by the state back in early August after the Florida Education Association, other public employee unions and several individual workers asked a court to strike down the law that requires public employees to start contributing to the Florida Retirement System
Bondi's office - which is responsible for defending the state in lawsuits - signed off on a request from the Scott administration to hire the firm and to pay it more than normal hourly rates.
"We thought they were best," said Bondi when asked about it.
But State Sen. Nan Rich, D-Weston, sharply criticized the hiring and questioned why the state couldn't at least hire a law firm that has offices located in the state.
"Did we have go all the way to D.C. to hire attorneys who get paid at more than twice the normal pay?" Rich said.


Follow the money



The contract between the state and the law firm caps the total compensation at $500,000. So far the state has paid out $391,000, a spokesman for the Department of Management Services said.

But Jason Dimitris, general counsel for the agency, said the state is likely to offer Alston and Bird a second contract since the first one only covered the trial at the circuit court level. Circuit Judge Jackie Fulford has not yet ruled on the pension lawsuit, but the case is expected to be appealed by the losing side.
Dimitris said that everyone involved in the litigation agreed on hiring Alston and Bird initially because of the "complex" nature of the pension lawsuit.

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/11/15/2503865/fla-hired-law-firm-with-ties-to.html#ixzz1eHqj2wDq

Rick Scott Was Warned That Columbia/HCA Practices Could Be illegal

He knew: Scott was warned that Columbia/HCA practices could be illegal **UPDATE: Team Sink responds

 

Rick Scott says he would have put a stop to the record Medicare (plus TRICARE and Medicaid) fraud committed by his company, Columbia/HCA, had he been aware of it. Well, about that not being aware…
From the Times/Herald Sunday:

Rick Scott has said he would have immediately stopped his former hospital company from committing Medicare fraud — if only “somebody told me something was wrong.”
But he was cautioned year after year that the financial incentives Columbia/HCA offered doctors could run afoul of a federal antikickback law that seeks to limit conflicts of interest in Medicare and Medicaid.
They were contained in the company’s annual public reports to stockholders that Scott, now the Republican candidate for Florida governor, signed as Columbia/HCA’s president and chief executive officer.

The reports said the company believed it was complying with the spirit of the law. But as far back as 1994 — three years before the FBI began scrutinizing the company — Columbia/HCA acknowledged that it might not be following the letter of complex health care rules.

“Certain of the Company’s current arrangements with physicians … risk scrutiny” from investigators and “may be subject to enforcement action,” the 1994 report said — a precaution echoed over the years in documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Scott today says he doesn’t remember the reports he signed, but that the warning language sounded like “boilerplate, written by SEC lawyers just to cover all bases.” Indeed, the precautions mirrored those issued by some other health care companies.

Sort of like Scott doesn’t remember whether he wrote a six-figure check to cover the discrepancy between what’s in his campaign account, and what the Scott-Carroll campaign just spent buying TV ads …
Read the entire SPT/Herald article here. Meanwhile, Michael Bender, now with the Palm Beach Post, digs into Scott’s new company, Solantic.

UPDATE: The Alex Sink campaign issued this lengthy response to the Times/Herald story Sunday:

Tampa, FL – The Times/Herald reported today that during his tenure as hospital CEO , disgraced executive Rick Scott was repeatedly warned of possible illegal practices at his hospitals — and even signed yearly reports acknowledging kickback schemes.  While Scott claims he would have stopped the massive, systemic fraud if he had known about it, these new documents taken with the Department of Justice case show Scott was keenly aware and deeply involved.  This breaking news is just the latest example of how much Rick Scott is hiding from the people of Florida.
“Year after year Rick Scott signed documents acknowledging the misdeeds of his company, removing any last shred of credibility  he had in his weak attempts to defend the illegal misconduct he oversaw at his hospitals,” said Kyra Jennings, spokesperson for Alex Sink for Governor.  “Floridians deserve better than a Governor who chooses to ignore warnings that he might be breaking the law, turned a blind eye to illegal kickbacks, and used legal maneuvering to avoid being questioned by the FBI.  This latest information about Rick Scott’s connections to the historic, systemic, fraud happening at his company for years shows once again just how much he is hiding his record from the people of Florida.”

According to the Times/Herald, Scott signed repeated SEC filings in which he was warned that physician referrals his hospitals compensated doctors for might be breaking the law, and that this was part of Scott’s “business strategy.”  Even though Scott signed the forms, he says he does not remember signing them or being warned that he might be breaking the law.  The breaking story also reports that Rick Scott was scheduled to be questioned by the Department of Justice.

“Floridians can just add this to the laundry list of critical information about his record and past that Rick Scott is hiding from Floridians,” Jennings continued.  “From refusing to release the deposition with his new health care company he gave just six days before running for governor, to avoiding making his tax returns public, to ducking debates, Rick Scott is trying to keep Floridians from learning one basic truth: Rick Scott is clearly disqualified to be Florida’s next Governor.”

SCOTT’S LIES DON’T MATCH REALITY:

Rick Scott Lie #1:
“Rick Scott has said he would have immediately stopped his former hospital company from committing Medicare fraud — if only ‘somebody told me something was wrong.’”
Rick Scott Reality:

“But he was cautioned year after year that the financial incentives Columbia/HCA offered doctors could run afoul of a federal anti-kickback law that seeks to limit conflicts of interest in Medicare and Medicaid.  The warnings were contained in the company’s annual public reports to stockholders that Scott, now the Republican candidate for Florida governor, signed (emphasis added) as Columbia/HCA’s president and chief executive officer…Scott today says he doesn’t remember the reports he signed.”

Rick Scott Lie #2:

“Scott says he didn’t do anything wrong and wanted to fight the charges long before the hospital board settled the case without trial. ‘I believed we were doing the right things,’ he said, though Scott has acknowledged he was focused more on buying hospitals and performance than compliance.”

Rick Scott Reality:
“Federal investigators also said Scott knew about the doctor payments, court records show. In its lawsuit, the Justice Department said Scott personally told doctors that their payments from the company would increase with the number of patient referrals. Scott and other executives paid as much as $5,000 to doctors to cover their investments with Columbia — loans never repaid by doctors, the suit says.”
Rick Scott Lie #3:

“Scott has said that he was never interviewed by the FBI, nor was he criminally charged.”

Rick Scott Reality:

“Yet Scott was scheduled to be interviewed by investigators, according to media reports at the time. During a July 27, 2000, deposition in a civil lawsuit involving an unrelated contract dispute, Scott refused to answer questions by invoking his right to Fifth Amendment protection from self-incrimination 75 times – a maneuver that can only be legally applied when the witness suspects he is the target of criminal investigation. (emphasis added)”

Rick Scott Lie #4:
“In June, [Scott] told a Herald/Times reporter that he never met with Jerre Frazier, a company attorney, who said he warned Scott of potential ‘compliance issues.’ ‘I don’t believe that ever happened,’ Scott said. ‘If somebody told me something was wrong, I would have done everything to fix it.’”

Rick Scott Reality:
“Frazier insists the meeting took place, albeit toward the end of Scott’s reign at HCA.”

Conflict Of Interest Questions Swirl Around Rick Scott, Solantic

Rick Scott and Ann Scott

With questions already swirling about his refusal to allow a legislatively-approved pill mill database to go into existence – even as the company he co-founded, Solantic, operates clinics that sell cheap prescription drugs, Florida Gov. Rick Scott makes another questionable move: transferring his interest in Solantic … to his wife.
Scott, who presided over the company that perpetrated the greatest Medicare fraud in U.S. history, has also appointed a former executive with that company, Columbia/HCA, to administer a trust related to his in-house share transfer. As the Palm Beach Post reports:

As Florida Gov. Rick Scott reorganizes health agencies, cuts spending and pushes for new free-market health policies, his ownership of Solantic, the urgent care chain, increasingly poses conflict of interest questions.
Solantic co-founder Karen Bowling says Scott has taken steps to distance himself from the chain. He stopped regular business calls with her after he was elected.
“I don’t talk to him anymore. Not since November. Really not much since April,” Bowling said.
Scott left the privately held company’s board of directors in January 2010, during his campaign.
But the most important step the governor must take to avoid a conflict of interest, some ethics experts say, is to divest his Solantic interests.
In January, Scott did transfer his Solantic stock – to his wife.
“The controlling investor in Solantic is the Frances Annette Scott Revocable Trust,” Bowling said.
Solantic’s new chairman, as of last month, is retired Columbia/HCA executive Charles Evans. Evans said he is the Scott trust’s representative.
“I have no communication with them at all,” Evans said.
Scott’s efforts to distance himself appear to be designed to meet the letter of Florida ethics laws, if not the spirit.

Legal experts suggests Scott’s efforts might not survive a legal challenge:

They may not succeed if challenged, warned legal and ethics expert Marc Rodwin, a law professor at Suffolk University who is the author of several books on health care and conflicts of interest.
“Placing his ownership in the name of his wife is not an effective way to control for conflicts of interest and not generally accepted because they are personally related,” Rodwin said.
Rodwin said Scott’s blindness to Solantic’s daily business decisions likewise does not relieve his conflict.
“His family still benefits from it,” he said.

And questions still remain about why Scott seems so adamantly opposed to the pill mill database, and whether Solantic clinics will benefit from his policies, which seem designed to drive more business to private medical operators, with less and less government scrutiny.
Scott’s intentions are hard to discern, because of the extreme secrecy of his administration, which routinely refuses to divulge its contacts with business.
Without disclosure, one can only guess whether Scott’s policies stand to enrich the company whose profits now flow to his wife.


http://blog.reidreport.com/2011/03/conflict-of-interest-questions-swirl-around-rick-scott-solantic/