This guy has lived in Florida all of seven years and he's aggressively promoting oil-drilling off our coasts and calling for Arizona-style immigration laws. We don't need this. St. Pete Times article here ("Rick Scott touts CEO experience in run for Florida governor, to a degree").
"As I have said repeatedly, Columbia/HCA made mistakes, and I take responsibility for what happened on my watch as CEO," Scott said in a written statement Friday. He has denied knowing frauds were taking place while he was there, and he was never charged with any crimes.
However, federal investigators found that Scott took part in business practices at Columbia/HCA that were later found to be illegal — specifically, that Scott and other executives offered financial incentives to doctors in exchange for patient referrals, in violation of federal law, according to lawsuits the Justice Department filed against the company in 2001.
The doctor payments were among 10 different kinds of fraud identified by the Justice Department in its 10-year probe of the company, records show. Three years after Scott left Columbia/HCA, the company admitted wrongdoing, pleading guilty to 14 felonies — most committed during Scott's tenure — in addition to paying two sets of fines totaling $1.7 billion. . . .
On his campaign website, Scott said that he would have corrected any problems at the company "immediately'' had he known about them. But a former company insider told the Miami Herald that he warned Scott in a meeting of "significant problems'' at least six months before Scott's resignation, which came nine days after the FBI raided 33 Columbia hospitals and offices in six states.
The insider, attorney Jerre Frazier, who was brought in by a Columbia/HCA board member to root out the company's problems, said he did not believe Scott personally approved any illegal conduct. But, he said: "Rick is a bright guy, and he picked up on what was happening."
The Scott campaign dismissed Frazier as a "disgruntled former employee."
Whether or not Scott was aware of his company's questionable conduct, the breadth of the problems raises questions about Scott's leadership, management experts say.
Nell Minow of the Corporate Library, a watchdog group, put it this way: "Being ignorant of all that doesn't inspire confidence." In judging a CEO, she said, "it's no better to be a schnook than a crook." . . .
(Emphasis added.) Read the complete article for more information. List of violations here. (Post on Arizona here.)
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