Alan Germany, a former Tulare hospital executive, pleaded not guilty to an array of charges in an arraignment hearing on Wednesday. Judge Jennifer Shirk presided over the hearing held at the Tulare County Superior Court.
For three counts, Germany’s attorney Kevin Rooney filed a demurrer with the court, stating that the allegations — all centering around an allegedly illegal financial interest in Healthcare Conglomerate Associates’ dealings and contracts with the Tulare Local Healthcare District and Southern Inyo Healthcare Districts — were vague and did not specify how he had an illegal interest.
Healthcare Conglomerate Associates previously managed the Tulare Regional Medical Center and Southern Inyo Hospital, both owned by their respective districts.
“Mr. Germany is entitled to be advised, with some particularity, which factual theory(ies) of a ‘financial interest’ the prosecution will rely upon,” a filing from Germany’s attorney, Kevin Rooney, read.
Rooney previously represented Germany in a case where Germany, and HCCA CEO Benny Benzeevi, fought to have items returned that were seized in search warrants.
Both Rooney and Germany, the former Chief Financial Officer for Healthcare Conglomerate Associates, dialed into the court via Zoom. Trevor Holly, representing the Tulare County District Attorney’s office, appeared in Department 3 in person.
Holly had two requests for Rooney, Germany and the court: he wanted Germany’s legal team to agree that the case’s jurisdiction was within Tulare County, and he requested a court order that Germany not leave the country and surrender his passport due to the “large-scale fraud and political corruption” the allegations involve.
Rooney and Germany agreed with both requests; Germany’s passport was already in the mail to him, Rooney said.
The next hearing, which will include arguments regarding the demurrer, will be held in Department 3 of the Tulare County Superior Court on September 30 at 8:30am.
Dig deeper
The Voice has made all of the documents currently in the court docket available to the public.
Click here to view the files currently available. As each case progresses, the website will be updated with new filings.
What Holly and the Attorney’s office would need to do is bring in another key witness to question for potentially prosecuting Germany and Benzeevi; and that would be Delbert Bryant the financial controller that reported directly to Germany during Germanys tenure at TDH. Bryant knows all of Germanys illegal activity and of course his “do NOT pay this!” type of mentality. This of course included certain vendor bills that came across Bryants desk as well as Germanys. They both performed this kind of conduct and activity for almost 5 years.
I’m sure Mr Bryant has turned over evidence for a plea bargain and or immunity. His role as the Controller made him guilty as well. Technically it would have been noted as colisión.
I’m sure Mr Bryant has turned over evidence for a plea bargain and or immunity. His role as the Controller made him guilty as well. Technically it would have been noted as collusion.
Agreed. Yet I’m not so sure about Bryant turning over evidence as a plea bargain considering that he was involved with Germanys plan to “inflate” the health clinic depts. projections and figures by either doubling or in some cases tripling them from their original amounts per each fiscal quarter in order to make it look like the clinics were seeing an immense amount of patients in order to justify medical charges. This of course would throw anyone off in regards to looking specifically at Dr. Kumar’s patient load every week specifically on Fridays (Hillman Clinic). He would personally and intentionally “inflate” his patient work load total to almost 150 patients a day?! C’mon! How is that even possible, for any small clinical physician?
This of course presented a “red-flag” itself immediately upon discovery. Nevertheless, Bryant and Germany proceeded to process these amounts and records as if they were legit to begin with. And this went on for almost 3 years.