Somehow he got off by resigning as CEO and went on to be elected governor and later senator of Florida. Absolutely mind-boggling that he seemed to face no personal consequences for that. In fact, when he resigned he was paid out millions and granted hundreds of millions in stock by the board.
https://www.justice.gov/archive/opa/pr/2003/June/03_civ_386....
> Previously, on December 14, 2000, HCA subsidiaries pled guilty to substantial criminal conduct and paid more than $840 million in criminal fines, civil restitution and penalties. Combined with today's separate administrative settlement with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), under which HCA will pay an additional $250 million to resolve overpayment claims arising from certain of its cost reporting practices, the government will have recovered $1.7 billion from HCA, by far the largest recovery ever reached by the government in a health care fraud investigation.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Scott
> Eight days after the initial raid, Scott signed his last SEC report as a hospital executive. Four months later, the board of directors pressured him to resign as chairman and CEO.[32] He was succeeded by Thomas F. Frist Jr.[33] Scott was paid $9.88 million in a settlement, and left owning 10 million shares of stock then worth more than $350 million
Columbia / HCA Fraud Investigation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Scott#Fraud_investigation...
"In late 2002, HCA agreed to pay the United States government $631 million, plus interest, and $17.5 million to state Medicaid agencies, in addition to $250 million paid up to that point to resolve outstanding Medicare expense claims. In all, civil lawsuits cost HCA more than $2 billion to settle; at the time, this was the largest fraud settlement in U.S. history."
The amount of fraud here is staggering. I've seen a number of "businesses" that range from questionable to highly suspect to outright blatant fraud in a number of different industries, mainly in real estate - but they all pale in comparison to the amount of straight-up scams that exist in the medical world that all seem to originate here.
It's not limited by demographic either. I've seen people of all shapes, sizes, creeds, etc... in on this game, and they're all damn proud to be playing it. You see it in their luxury condos & homes, and their fancy cars that they get tricked out. You see it in their high-end clothes, their frequent dining out, and everything in-between.
Fraud is the name of the game. Yet when you ask people what they do, you get a runaround, vague, BS filled answer. The lack of ethical or honest people around here is stunning.
I'd leave but as a NY'er, the weather is just unbeatable.