BOSTON – Ralph de la Torre, the CEO of Steward Health Care, says he will not testify at a hearing in Washington next week led by a bipartisan group of senators looking into his bankrupt company.
Back in July, de la Torre was ordered to testify at a public hearing next Thursday before the Senate Committee on Healthcare, Education, Labor and Pensions.
Ralph de la Torre’s response
He responded to the subpoena Wednesday with a scathing letter from his attorney, Alexander Merton, to the HELP Committee, saying the senators appeared “determined 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.”
Instead, he’s asking the panel to reschedule the hearing until after Steward’s bankruptcy process has finished.
CBS News has reached out to the committee for their response, but has not heard back yet.
Steward filed for bankruptcy reorganization in May and is working to sell all of its hospitals, including five in Massachusetts.
Criminal investigation into Steward
CBS News was first to report in July that federal prosecutors in Boston are investigating Steward Health Care on allegations of fraud and corruption.
The Senate investigation is aimed at holding de la Torre and Steward accountable for its management of dozens of community hospitals across the country.
“Indeed, there have been calls for criminal investigations of Dr. de la Torre by members of this Committee, ascribing guilt to him without a factual basis for doing so,” de la Torre’s attorney said in his letter Wednesday.
“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 by seeking sworn testimony on matters for which the Committee has pre-determined his guilt. Dr. de la Torre’s testimony before the Committee under these circumstances would be wholly inappropriate.”
Merton said his client won’t testify at this time because “as doing otherwise may run afoul of the federal court order prohibiting him from discussing the above-referenced mediation efforts.”