#this is collyer's gift to us. thank you collyer

[blorb-el]

bass clark rights btw

superman 279, 1974, script elliot s! maggin

[investmart007]

Ohio News: Jury convicts former MetroHealth Chief Operating Officer and three others in kickback and bribery scheme

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Ohio News: Jury convicts former MetroHealth Chief Operating Officer and three others in kickback and bribery scheme

Cleveland, Ohio – The former Chief Operating Officer of MetroHealth Hospital System and three other men were convicted by a jury for their roles in a conspiracy to defraud the hospital and others through a series of bribes and kickbacks totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars related to the hospital’s dental program.

Edward R. Hills, 58, of Aurora, Sari Alqsous, 34, of Cleveland, Yazan B. Al-Madani, 34, of Westlake, and Tariq Sayegh, 38, of Cleveland, were all found guilty of criminal charges following a trial that lasted several weeks. They are scheduled to be sentenced November 27.

“These defendants ripped off taxpayers and betrayed the community’s trust when they accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and other bribes,” U.S. Attorney Justin Herdman said. “Their egregious, offensive behavior lasted nearly a decade and now they will be held accountable for their actions.”

“A jury decided to hold Mr. Hills and his associates accountable for their roles in defrauding our healthcare system,” FBI Special Agent in Charge Stephen D. Anthony said.  “The investigation revealed these individuals engaged in a pervasive pattern of fraud, betraying the MetroHealth Hospital System, its employees, and our community. The collective efforts of the FBI, IRS, Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, Ohio Office of the Inspector General, United States Attorney’s Office, and MetroHealth officials led to the disruption of this destructive illegal activity. ”

“Edward Hills was placed in the utmost position of trust by MetroHealth, but he chose to abuse that position of trust for his own personal greed and ego,” said Ryan L. Korner, Special Agent in Charge, IRS Criminal Investigation, Cincinnati Field Office. “These defendants had the opportunity to come clean and tell the truth. Instead, they chose to obstruct the investigation by telling witnesses to not to cooperate with law enforcement.  Now they are convicted felons facing a lengthy prison sentences for their crimes. Today’s guilty verdicts are a direct result of the excellent partnership amongst IRS Criminal Investigation, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, FBI, the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, and the Ohio Office of the Inspector General.”

“This investigation unraveled a complex scheme that involved corruption on a number of different levels,” said Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine.  “Corruption like this has no place in Ohio, and I applaud the work of all our law enforcement partners who investigated and prosecuted this case.”

Hills worked in various capacities at MetroHealth, including as Chief Operating Officer and Director of MetroHealth Dental.  He also served as interim President and Chief Executive Officer from December 2012 through July 2013. Alqsous, Al-Madani and Sayegh are dentists who worked for MetroHealth.

According to court documents, testimony and documents presented at trial:

Hills, Alqsous and Al-Madani engaged in a racketeering conspiracy from 2008 through 2016 involving a series of elaborate bribery conspiracies, witness tampering and other crimes.  These bribes include Hills soliciting cash, checks, a $3,879 Louis Vuitton briefcase, a 55-inch television, airline flights and use of a downtown apartment from Alqsous, Al-Madani and others.  In return, Hills took official actions on their behalf, including allowing them to work at their private dental businesses during regular business hours while receiving a full-time salary from MetroHealth.

Alqsous, Al-Madani and others gave cash, checks and other things of value to Hills beginning in 2009.  Evidence included text messages and meetings, often at expensive restaurants, which resulted in cash being deposited into Hills’ bank accounts.

Alqsous sent a text message to Al-Madani and another person in 2013 that stated: “With 22nd of October approaching we ll be celebrating Dr hills bday earlier this year…1000 dollars each is the gift from the 3 sons their father.” Later that day, $3,000 was deposited into Hills’ bank account.

In 2012, Alqsous rented and lived in an apartment at the Perry Payne apartment building in downtown Cleveland. When he bought a residence, Hills instructed Alqsous to continue paying rent and other bills at the Perry Payne building, even though Alqsous would no longer be living there.  Hills used the Perry Payne apartment to house an associate and for his own personal use in 2013 and 2014 while Alqsous, acting on Hills’ orders, continued to pay rent and other bills.

Hills instructed Alqsous to purchase furniture for the apartment for Hills’ personal use. Alqsous sent Hills a text in 2013 stating: “I bought your bedroom yesterday…there is mirrors everywhere…You will like it.”

Hills became interim President and CEO of the MetroHealth Hospital System in December 2012. Around that time, he told Alqsous, Al-Madani and others that he wanted a specific Louis Vuitton briefcase because his predecessor had a similar briefcase.

Alqsous texted a photo of the briefcase to Hills and wrote: “The guys are also very excited about their raise haha.” Hills responded with: “Thanks I’m so excited to have my bag to start my new job as #1.” Later that day, Alqsous, Al-Madani and others purchased the briefcase for $3,879 from Saks Fifth Avenue in Beachwood and later presented it to Hills.

As director of MetroHealth Dental, Hills was responsible for determining monthly bonuses for dentists who produced receipts in excess of their monthly salary and benefits.  Dentists typically received a monthly bonus totaling 25 percent of the monies they generated for excess receipts.

Between 2010 and 2014, Hills regularly upwardly adjusted the bonuses of Alqsous, Al-Madani and others, by a total of approximately $92,829.

Hills also allowed Alqsous, Al-Madani and others to retain full-time salaries and benefits at MetroHealth without requiring them to work full-time hours, thus allowing them to operate private dental clinics.  Hills, acting at the request of Alqsous and Al-Madani, provided MetroHealth dental residents to practice at those private clinics during regular business hours. Neither Alqsous nor Al-Madani paid wages or salaries to the resident dentists.

Additionally, Alqsous, Al-Madani and Sayegh solicited and accepted bribes totaling tens of thousands of dollars from prospective candidates to the MetroHealth Dental residency program.

In a typical year, the MetroHealth Dental residency accepted four to six candidates for the residency program from a pool of 40 to 60 applicants.  Alqsous, Sayegh and Al-Madani each had the authority to influence the selection of dental residents, and Hills had final decisional authority over who was selected for the residency program.

Alqsous and Sayegh often identified and selected candidates who were from Jordan or trained at a Jordanian dental school, telling them they would have to pay a “donation” to MetroHealth to be considered.  Alqsous and Sayegh directed the candidates to pay the “donation” directly to them, and in some cases, told the candidates a portion of the money would go to Hills.

Alqsous, Sayegh and Al-Madani solicited at least $75,000 in bribes from resident dentist candidate between 2008 and 2014.

In another conspiracy, Al-Madani and Alqsous paid bribes to Hills in exchange for him taking actions to refer Medicaid recipients to private dental clinics owned by Al-Madani and Alqsous instead of MetroHealth.  All three took steps to conceal this activity by claiming kickback checks totaling $17,600 written to Hills were for “consultation fees” or “professional fees”.

Hills, Alqsous and Al-Madani also conspired to obstruct justice, instructing people not to cooperate with law enforcement after becoming aware of the federal investigation in 2014.

Hills also made false statements on tax returns, failing to claim approximately $165,751 in unreported income stemming from bribes, kickbacks and other things of value between 2011 and 2013.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Om Kakani, Michael L. Collyer and James Lewis following an investigation by the FBI, IRS-CI, Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation and the Ohio Office of the Inspector General.

—-

SOURCE: news provided by JUSTICE.GOV on Monday, July 30, 2018.

[aec-blog]

Heritage Trail: Singapore River Walk

Note: This walk was done with my best friend, Jason Lou, who is in another PFP class, and had decided to follow me on this trail. Also: this walk was done on 17/6/18, which was close enough to the date of Hari Raya Puasa, that certain shops/paths were closed, (which led to us being unable to get to a “Change Alley”) and foot traffic was decreased significantly. And finally: all photos in this post, if not cited, were taken by me.

Before proceeding, I feel like it is important to clarify as to why I picked such a long, difficult, far-from-home trail. The reason is simple: I felt that as the whole purpose of the heritage trail was to impress upon our citizenry, the Singapore river should be a spot to go to, as it is incredibly important to the country’s history, given that we were once a fishing village turned trade center. The river allowed much trade to occur, along with allowing visiting boats to dock in its banks, and providing a medium for transport that reached deep into Singapore’s land, which let Singapore’s potential for trade grow even further, and that potential was well seen (and used) by Sir Stamford Raffles. 

Now, on with the trail, with the footprints being many, many, captured moments:

The first sight upon leaving the train station:

Now, after admiring the view, we had to go to our first stop on our trail, as marked by the National Heritage Board on their website: Collyer Quay 

After say 15 minutes of traveling, and turning in circles to let the Google Map point us in the right direction, we found this while walking near the Customs House, a mark left from the organizers:

Oh, almost forgot, selfie! (though not really)

(Taken while walking along the bayside restaurants)

After that, we took an overhead bridge and went through a shopping complex and some pavements to get to our next station: Raffles Place. Which was, in fact, the MRT train station “Raffles Place” :

If you would read the plaque, it says that the MRT station entrance is meant to replicate the John Little building, which was situated nearby a VERY long time ago. Jason and I went outside to give the entrance a closer look, and sure enough:

It does rather look a lot like this:

(Source)

Back to the trail, after being unable to actually visit Change Place due to the assumed entrance being roped off (probably because of Hari Raya Puasa):

We made off to the location that was called “Market Street”, which we can only assume it once had much appeal, because all we encountered were massive walls of monumental offices on one side, and an ongoing construction site on the other site:

Personal shot of myself at the end of the walk: (taken by Jason)

After that, we walked back to the river, our main landmark we would go along with during the trail. This time, we were to find the marked position of “Raffles Place” on the map on the Walk’s website. Upon reaching, we found another plaque, one that we managed to miss upon first arriving: (2nd photo taken by Jason)

Luckily, the plaque explained the significance of the recently visited street, along with the significance of the current location. 

We then journeyed to the Cavenagh Bridge, which had an interesting sign at its mouth, one that highlighted it’s significance back in the days of a trade center:

(2nd photo taken by Jason)

Crossing it, we resolved to walk along that side to get to “Elgin Bridge”, which was ahead of us in terms of the river’s position. Along the way, we found a statue that, until that point, we had only read about in our textbooks:

Thank you, sir, for bringing Singapore into the light, and laying the cornerstone of this country’s development. 

Jason and I walked along a bit further from that point and found a white bridge. Squinting, we confirmed that it was, indeed, Elgin Bridge.

Photo of me after we crossed the bridge: (taken by Jason)

We then had to move inland, away from the bridge, in order to reach our next historical site: the Former Thai Cheng Medical Institution. After approximately 10 minutes of walking under the shade provided by the walkways of shophouses, and crossing many junctions, we finally managed to find it. 

And both of us were thoroughly impressed with the history embedded with the structure, as told to us by the Heritage Board’s plaque:

In addition to the plaque, near the main entrance, we found something that further emphasized the historical power of this place:

We were tempted to visit the inside of the clinic, but the resident medical service, Forever Living, was closed on Sundays and Public holidays, and the day we did the trail was, unfortunately, a Sunday. 

After which, we headed back to the river, but not before having lunch at a Macdonalds that had settled itself in one of the nearby shophouses. Then we went off in search of Clemenceau Bridge, which had a title plaque similar to Elgin bridge stuck to the middle of its base:

Admittedly, it took a while to find the bridge, as it did not seem very...historical....as compared to other bridges we had seen. However, it was a target, nonetheless, and we decided to take a selfie together:

We crossed the dark underpass of the bridge to get to our next bridge, which was quite easy to find due to us only needing to follow the river.

After some walking, we found the Alkaff bridge, which initially made me feel slightly angry, as upon seeing the art that decorated its entirety:

I had the immediate impression that some youth program had transformed whatever the bridge looked like previously. And thus, stained the bridge’s history, by covering whatever it had endured over the many years, with paint. 

However, I was pleasantly surprised when I learned that it was quite the opposite, according to 2 nearby signs: one from the heritage board, the other from an unknown organization:

They informed us that a certain “Pacita Abad” had painted this bridge as a gift to the country, with the circles themselves being handpainted by the internationally-acclaimed artist herself. 

A closer photo of the bridge...:

...and a photo of my friend, Jason, with the bridge:

We then traveled inland again to find a place called “Robertson Quay”. Trusting Google Maps, we followed its direction into the jungle of concrete buildings, and eventually found ourselves surrounded by them. 

Jason and I spent quite the time looking for something that looked like “Robertson Quay”, all before my eye caught a sign that completed our hunt for the location...very interestingly:

We had expected water of some sort, but could not find the Singapore river extending into anyplace nearby, leaving us to summarize that land developers had reclaimed the earth beneath us, in order to create the giants that surrounded us:

We made our way back to the river to go back to hunting down bridges, and that is when we came across something that ended our suspicions and revealed to us the true location of the quay:

Behind this sign was the river, which meant that the quay was just underneath us before it was developed for construction.

We walked along the river to get to our next location: Ord bridge, which we had noted was quite close to Clemenceau bridge, and what we had thought was the aforementioned bridge initially. Its appearance should explain why it looked more like a “Clemenceau Bridge” : (1st and 3rd photo taken by Jason)

Picture of my (tired) self on the bridge:

We then ventured to find Clark Quay, and when we did, the only marker as to whether we actually were standing on the correct location, was this:

After which was the Coleman bridge, which did not take long to find, due to its location and it’s eye-catching beauty:

Selfie of me and Jason:

We then hunted down one of our last bridges: Read Bridge:

Then came the hardest hunt: The entirety of Clark Quay. Which, marked by the website, had 4 parts to it: Clarke Quay itself, then the Cannery, Ice House, and River House. When we tried to find them, we were greeted by many places:

There was nothing that looked like a “River house”, or “Ice House”, or “The Cannery”. The closest I could find for the Cannery was this little sign:

The river house was never located, and as for the Ice House...well....we went about the LONGEST time trying to find an Ice House, which we assumed was a deep-cooling facility, and then my eyes caught a sign above me:

(Note that underneath this was a bar/restaurant) 

After finally realizing where the Ice House was, we gave up on trying to find the River House and took Clarke Quay to just be the whole tourist district we had just stalked through. (It was)

What Jason and I learned about, mostly, was the deep history woven into the river of Singapore's river and it's surroundings. In addition to that, our map reading skill also increased considerably, due to its constant need to be used throughout the trail. As for the history learned....it can be useful when writing historical papers, and need the information for reference. After all, it was painstaking work, walking to the locations marked by the National Heritage Board. However, the information left by various Singapore's history organizations through their marks made the whole thing well worth it. Especially the Former Thong Chai Medical Institution, the learning of such a place existing was a reminder of a much simpler time, when health care was free for people needing it. Pity that such times no longer exist in the society of today. 

The only questions that come to me, from that long trail:

How many Singaporean citizens are aware of the deep history of the bridges?

Do people still appreciate the efforts of the past, made by our ancestors?

Can modern citizens ever attempt to replicate the Former Medical Institution's kindness, and create a free quality healthcare center?