Tag: Accounting Fraud

Let’s think dirty and get to the bottom of what’s driving the Jackson County Sups

I heard the catch phrase “think dirty” many years ago at a course given by Dennis Dycus (along with the now politically incorrect “three b’s and a d”) and it came to mind as I followed the coverage of the Jackson County Sups telling the SRHS retirees to shut up at Monday’s meeting and today’s resulting editorial at the Sun Herald declaring the only remaining recourse the retirees have at this point is at the ballot box. It was a conclusion that Slabbed New Media reached as a matter of editorial policy three weeks ago when I wrote the following:

Just a thought but if I were one of the dedicated retiree picketers I’d strongly consider scheduling some days at the county courthouse to force the Sups to come clean on everything Billy Guice has found.

Now back to thinking dirty.  Slabbed revealed the first big clue to the big picture on March 11th when “No one can serve two masters…” A SRHS Conflict of Interest Series Part 1 was published and SRHS Trustee Scott Taylor revealed the fundamentally interest conflicted position he occupied trying to engage the plan participants on behalf of the very organization that had tried shafting them just a few months earlier. When pressed in comments by Cisco Aguilar Taylor melted down and that was an important data point.  You see folks Scott Taylor was appointed to the Singing River Trustees by Supervisor John McKay not to help the retirees. He was appointed by McKay to help McKay win reelection by making the Singing River problem go away.

Then bad news Friday, April 10th, 2015 arrived:

SRHS releases financial statements, announces job cuts ~ Brad Kessie

The SRHS PR spin was evident in the WLOX headline as there should have been no equivalency between the release of the 2014 year end and new job cuts related to continuing losses. Of course that did not stop CEO Kevin Holland from sticking to those ridiculous PR talking points blaming the auditors for a management perpetrated financial Continue reading “Let’s think dirty and get to the bottom of what’s driving the Jackson County Sups”

Liars and Crooks are easily spotted……

It is a long interview and there is copious amounts of BS early on when SRHS CEO Kevin Holland tries covering for his predecessor but overall Doug and Dave did a good job honing in the real issues at play on News Watch This Week. Most interesting is Holland tacitly admits that SRHS chose construction projects over honoring its promises to its retirees.

WLOX.com – The News for South Mississippi
Continue reading “Liars and Crooks are easily spotted……”

Litigation ain’t easy: A Heather Hilliard / SRHS v KPMG update

Ramon Antonio Vargas tells the story behind the story of a determined litigant in former Jefferson Parish CAO Heather Hilliard and her two and a half year journey to justice for the New Orleans Advocate that is good reading as another news story originally broke by Slabbed New Media (here and here) completes its cycle through the news. Looks like I’ll need to shake the tree to see what is happening these days up on 10 at Yenni.  😉

Moving right along in other litigation news, it does not appear KPMG is very scared of the lawsuit that Kevin Holland and company at SRHS filed against the audit firm late last week per April Havens.  I really don’t want to throw any wet blankets on this legal matter but based on the wording in the complaint, I think the only people that will make any money from the endeavor will be the lawyers.  I strongly suspect we’ll be seeing a 12(b)(6) motion asking for dismissal from KPMG and the reason such a motion stands a good chance is actually found in the 2013 Audit Report prepared by Horne CPAs in several places but I will highlight two places, the first on pdf page three of the report.

Management’s Responsibility for the Financial Statements

Management is responsible for the preparation and fair presentation of these financial statements in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America; this includes the design, implementation and maintenance of internal control relevant to the preparation and fair presentation of the financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error.

You would assume someone that has been in a senior management role at SRHS for as long as CEO Kevin Holland would understand these things but my experience is when the shit hits the fan, the stuffed suits typically pretend they don’t know jack while trying to cover things up and this is indeed the route senior management at SRHS has been taking since last March. Preserving talking points seems to be the paramount concern at SRHS these days and the public money being thrown at the KPMG lawsuit endeavor will be both copious in amount and represent a good example of the wasting of assets, all while management at SRHS tries putting the screws to its own retirees.

Here is the second place that I mentioned and it is on the very last page of the audit: Continue reading “Litigation ain’t easy: A Heather Hilliard / SRHS v KPMG update”

A Cornerstone of the Singing River Financial Disaster: Management perpetrates an accounting fraud

And folks that has been the 500 pound gorilla in the room that most informed observers see but for which there has been no media reporting. Today that changes and to set things up we need to hop into the Wayback machine and set the dial for March 3, 2014:

Singing River Health System likely to collect $88 million less on bills than previously anticipated ~ April Havens

Singing River Health System leaders went before the Jackson County Board of Supervisors this morning to say they will likely collect $88 million less on patients’ bills than they expected.

System representatives met with the board during an executive session under “potential litigation” and spoke to the media afterward.

The county’s legal team said the system discussed its bond status with supervisors in the meeting.

For a five-year period ending in 2012, the hospital can expect to collect $61 million less than previously anticipated, CEO Kevin Holland said after the executive session meeting. For 2013, that figure is $27 million.

“We have a substantial amount of patient balances in our system … on past services rendered,” Holland said.

And of course this was mostly discussed in a secret, out of the taxpaying public’s eye under the guise of an executive session to discuss potential litigation. To the extent SRHS hasn’t sued the former audit firm KPMG and crystal balls foretelling the coming retiree suits against the system are the stuff of fantasy, I’m struggling, with the benefit of hindsight, to understand why this discussion was held in an executive session. As I’ve previously opined, KPMG was not sued because there was too much dirty laundry potential. Before I explain why it helps to understand why the above story is nothing more than SRHS/Jackson County Supervisor political spin: Continue reading “A Cornerstone of the Singing River Financial Disaster: Management perpetrates an accounting fraud”