http://www.suntimes.com/output/healt...nws-med30.html
Chicago Medical School investigated by feds, two trustees step down

June 30, 2004

BY LORI RACKL Health Reporter Advertisement






Federal authorities are investigating alleged financial wrongdoing at a North Chicago medical school, according to a source familiar with the probe.

Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science, which includes the Chicago Medical School, acknowledged Tuesday it has received a grand jury subpoena and that two of its trustees, Jacob Kiferbaum and Stuart Levine, have resigned.

Details of the investigation were not known. But the probe started around the same time that a federal whistleblower suit accused Kiferbaum and Levine of schemes involving shakedowns and kickbacks to get hospital projects approved.

That suit, filed last month by Edward Hospital executives, claims approval from the state Health Facilities Planning Board hinged on whether hospitals were willing to do business with Kiferbaum's construction firm and arrange financing through Bear Stearns & Co. Inc. Levine was the planning board's vice chairman until he resigned earlier this month.

In the case of the medical school, Kiferbaum sat on the university's board of trustees while his Deerfield construction company snared contracts to build a massive health sciences building and student housing on campus.

Faculty members, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said Kiferbaum's role as both the university's trustee and contractor smacked of conflict of interest. The organization that accredits medical schools states that the "governing board responsible for oversight of the medical school must be composed of persons who have no personal or pecuniary interest or other conflict of interest in the operation of the school, its associated hospitals, or any related enterprises."

The Kiferbaum construction projects at the university were paid with $57.5 million in bonds issued by the state in 2001 and 2003. Records show that Bear Stearns was tapped to be the underwriter for both deals. Nicholas Hurtgen, who runs Bear Stearns' Chicago office, is also named in the whistlebowler suit.

The lawsuit alleges that in January, a Bear Stearns executive claimed Kiferbaum had arranged to have Bear Stearns finance the medical school's construction projects.

A spokesman for the medical school declined to elaborate on the nature of the feds' investigation. The university released a statement saying "the school may have been victimized" and that it "is cooperating fully with this federal inquiry."

Earlier this month, the Chicago Medical School was put on probation by the organization that accredits medical schools in North America. A school spokesman said the probationary status has nothing to do with the recently launched criminal investigation.

Contributing: Chris Fusco, Steve Warmbir, Tim Novak

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A similiar thing happened at the med center where I work. It was a scandal involving the orthopedics department. Apparently, the chairman and his wife were in on a little embezzlement scam. She sold prosthetic parts and titanium hardware; he gave her all of the bids. Duh, who isn't gonna figure that one out. Needless to say, the chair was slapped with a $150,000 fine and is now jobless. What is it about people who make a bunch of money aren't satisfied until they make more and more and more.....

what i've learned in my 53 years is that some people will climb over the barbed wire fences of life even when there is a gate that you can open. They don't need the money....they appear to need to do something illegal.

I talked to a prof who teaches ethics and he told me that you can't teach ethics...people are either ethical or not....

az skeptic

__________________
Moderator - State Licensing Forum

Still skeptical after all these years.
This is it. There are no hidden meanings.WYSIWYG

http://www.internetmedicalschool.homestead.com

http://www.chiropractormds.homestead.com/index.html