PHC CEO Bob Levine, right, receives a donation from board member and civic activist Joe Mure (left) as a PHC doctor looks on. (Wave file photo).
It may be claw-back time. Bankruptcy Trustee Lori Lapin Jones, who recently sold off the hospital property and the nursing home to a Brooklyn health care magnate, has issued subpoenas to several of the former players in the Peninsula Hospital drama: Former hospital CEO Robert Levine, MediSys executive Todd Miller; and Doctor Abiola Familusi, who became an an-hoc administrator after MediSys pulled out and Revival Home Health Care took over the hospital.
According to court papers, Jones is trying to figure out what went wrong with the once-vital hospital and where all the money went before it closed its doors for good earlier this year.
Jones wants the three former hospital executives to testify under oath and surrender financial documents to the court.
“The trustee believes that the Witness [Levine] has extensive knowledge concerning the investigation topics as well as concerning the general conduct and financial affairs of the debtors,” Jones wrote in court papers filed on November 21.
While both Levine and MediSys have submitted formal objections to the filings, Jones says that she had broad investigative rights and that “the court may order the examination of any party” related to the bankruptcy. She adds that “such examination may relate to the acts, conduct or property or to the liabilities and financial condition of the debtor’s estate.”
Many of the employees of the former hospital blamed Levine and his administration for the demise of the hospital.
A hearing is scheduled for next week on the objections to the investigation, but court insiders say that Jones has the right to investigate anybody who might have benefited from wrongdoing and who has money that might be due to the debtors in terms of clawing-back those funds.
Levine, who assisted in the turnover of the hospital to MediSys, a healthcare organization that owns a number of hospitals and whose CEO has been found guilty of bribing state officials, now works for the corporation as the chief of operations at Flushing Hospital, another MediSys site.
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