Federal police seize phones of Steward Health Care executives

Federal police have seized the phone of Steward Health Care’s former CEO, Ralph de la Torre, MD, as part of an ongoing criminal probe, the Boston Globe revealed.

The search took place the week of Nov. 18, with de la Torre being detained by authorities while they confiscated his phone, sources told the Globe. It’s unclear what else, if anything, was taken as part of the scrutiny. 

In July, CBS News revealed that Steward was under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) for its ties to the government of Malta, where Steward operated three state-run healthcare facilities. A whistleblower testified to Congress that de la Torre bragged about bribing officials with “brown bags” of cash, insinuating that he would bribe Maltese officials to overcome regulatory obstacles. 

In a statement to CBS News, a spokesperson for de la Torre denied the whistleblower's allegations. 

"This [search warrant] makes it more likely to me that the prosecutors think that [de la Torre] is a participant in a crime,” Mitchell Epner, a former federal prosecutor, told the Globe. "Very often in a situation like this, the underlings have already been contacted."

Sources told the Globe that federal authorities have spoken with multiple executives with the company as part of their criminal investigation. As part of the same investigation, Steward’s head of international operations, Armin Ernst, also had his phone seized by police. 

No charges have been filed against Ernst or de la Torre. 

Steward once operated over 30 hospitals in the U.S., but was forced to sell all of them after filing for bankruptcy protection in May. A large physician group owned and operated by Steward was sold to Kinderhook Industries, a private equity investor, for $245 million in October.

Read the full report from the Boston Globe at the link below.