Late CEO sought inquiry

Investigator hired to probe hospital district

In the year before he killed himself, Broward Health CEO Nabil El Sanadi brought in a corporate private investigator to probe wrongdoing at the public hospital system, meeting with him in restaurants and at his home because he feared his office was bugged, the investigator alleges.

Investigator Wayne Black made the claims in a letter sent hours after El Sanadi’s funeral Friday to Broward Health’s general counsel, Lynn Barrett. Black said evidence he produced has led to an investigation by the FBI, which is reviewing evidence and interviewing witnesses.

Broward Health released a statement Tuesday attacking Black. “Over the course of his work, Mr. Black failed to

fulfill his obligations, acted unprofessionally and was belligerent to Broward Health personnel,” said the statement. “Mr. Black was asked to cease all services on behalf of BrowardHealth in early October.”

Black had been hired in part because of his past work for the hospital district, which led to the 2003 conviction of Chief Financial Officer Patricia Mahaney for embezzlement.

The hospital district’s statement did not address whether the FBI was probing its affairs, and the FBI would neither confirm nor deny an investigation.

An FBI probe would be one of at least two currently faced by the district. The other inquiry comes from Melinda Miguel, Florida’s chief inspector general, who works for Gov. Rick Scott.

Miguel sent a letter, also dated the day of El Sanadi’s funeral, to Broward Health Chairman David Di Pietro, saying that “based on reported allegations” she planned to conduct a thorough review of every contract the organization has entered into since July 1, 2012.

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Tuesday called a Feb. 10 special meeting of the hospital district board to discuss the two investigations, which he said he learned about only after El Sanadi’s funeral. “I think this all needs to be aired out,” he said.

The existence of both investigations was disclosed by the nonprofit journalism website Florida Bulldog.

For an institution already stunned by the Jan. 23 suicide of its chief executive, Black’s account of the last few months may seem chilling. The investigator, whose firm has offices in Miami andNewYork, said El Sanadi hired him in April and asked him to look into several allegations, including ones involving security services and another involving kickbacks.

“Nabil and I met several times at his home or at a local restaurant to discuss my findings as he felt his office was bugged,” Black wrote in his email.“We used Nabil’s wife’s email to communicate most of the time because we didn’t know who would have access to sensitive emails.”

Black’s email to Barrett, produced in response to a public records request from the Sun Sentinel, complains that she has been hindering the investigation by bringing in outside lawfirms that pressed for the names of witnesses and sought to withhold evidence on the grounds that it was privileged. He also said Broward Health was wrongly withholding one suspect’s hard drive.

“I am writing regarding the pending FBI corruption investigation and the apparent continuing lack of cooperation from BH (Broward Health) with the FBI,” he wrote. “I can no longer sit quietly while needed evidence and information is being withheld from the corruption squad at the FBI.” Black declined comment. A letter from Broward Health’s outside law firm, Greenberg Traurig, said Black’s email “contains a number of inaccuracies,” although it does not list them.

The hospital district statement said that when Black was dismissed, El Sanadi hired a chief ethics officer and director of corporate security to handle suchwork internally.

Broward Health, which has 8,000 employees and more than 1,800 physicians, serves the northern two thirds of Broward County, operating five hospitals, including Broward Health Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale, Broward Health North, Broward Health Imperial Point, Broward Health Coral Springs and Chris Evert Children’s Hospital.

Broward Health, whose legal name is the North Broward Hospital District, last year settled a case with federal investigators by agreeing to pay $69 million in fines for overpaying physicians, rewarding them for steeringpatients to Broward Health’s services and penalizing them for taking on charitywork.

Di Pietro said he had been unaware there was an issue of non-cooperation with an FBI investigation and said he would raise the issue at next week’s board meeting.

“I’m concerned,” he said. “As far as I’m concerned, when the FBI asks public officials for records, those records should be produced, unless there is attorney-client privilege.”

He likewise assured state investigators in a letter that he would “work cooperatively with your office to assist in your review.”

As for El Sanadi’s concern that his office was bugged, he said, “I don’t knowthe basis of that concern. To the normal, everyday person, that is a shocking concern.”

FBI spokesman MichaelD. Leverock said, “At this time, the FBI is not in a position to comment on this matter.”

El Sanadi, the organization’s former emergency room chief, had served as chief executive for just over a year before his suicide in the lobby bathroom of his Lauderdale-by-theSea condominium.

He had undergone triplesurgery less than two weeks before his death, leading some to speculate that this outgoing, positive and successful executive had been struck by the depression that occasionally arrives after heart surgery.

dfleshler@tribpub.com or 954-356-4535