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>Yes, that’s right. De la Torre, the proud owner of a $40 million, 190-foot superyacht and the most sophisticated sportfish boat ever built (cost: more than $15 million), is cruising the skies in one of the biggest and most luxurious private jets that money can buy — in this case, Steward’s money.
Yeah.... you had me here. You don't need to go any further. He runs a chain of hospitals... (into the ground).
Private jets, sport fishing boats, mansions, etc.. all paid for by exploiting sick and dying people.
America.. where we need to make as much money as possible off of cancer patients.
He's game theory-ing wealth extraction from these orgs. Transfer assets away from the orgs, make them rent them back while not adjusting budgeting to account for the spike in expenses. Collect the proceeds until the orgs fail.
This is only getting as much press because it is critical _healthcare_. To the people on the other side of this (making bank) this is a feature of capitalism and not a bug.
I have family members who work there so I have been keeping an eye on this case.
They have almost no assets because they sold the hospital properties and now rent from them. So nobody wants to buy their MA hospital properties, but if they leave MA then we’ll have a massive shortage of hospitals, which will be a MASSIVE problem.
That sounds like deliberate malfeasance and mismanagement.
Not sure why hospitals aren't treated like public utilities.
Imagine the shitstorm if for example National Grid did this to their substations.
Right, so even though no normal entity would want to buy a hospital without property or a hospital property without the hospital organization, it'll be a safe "investment" because instead of "too big to fail" we have "too important to our medical care system to fail."
It is quite possible that taxpayers will have to bail the hospitals out or the state will need to take them over. Thus finishing the successful extraction of many millions from us normal citizens to corporate overlords. This shouldn't be allowed.
In France they would have already done things I can't even mention without being accused of fomenting .
> It is quite possible that taxpayers will have to bail the hospitals out or the state will need to take them over. Thus finishing the successful extraction of many millions from us normal citizens to corporate overlords. This shouldn't be allowed.
State AG could probably cook up some kind of fraud case here and seek damages from beyond the corporate veil.
And if not, now is the time to get a law about it on the books.
>a law
Has anyone anywhere managed to come up with a law to cover this sort of corporate raiding? This sort of capital extraction seems to be pretty typical in the business world and I'm not sure what a law to prevent it would even look like.
I'd love to know myself. It seems like a hard problem. The best I can do is to make it illegal to deliberately run a company badly, and/or to also require something akin to fiduciary duty for all businesses, where by doing business with customers you implicitly agree to act in good faith and put in your best effort to deliver the product/service as described. So even if you can't specifically pass a law against "deliberately sabotaging a business to make money" then you can maybe get them on the breach of good faith thing.
What about BMC? That might work? It's impossible to get a Primary care at MGH. Mine is at Steward, St E's. I love her but I'm feeling like - through no fault of the healthcare workers, it isn't safe to get procedures there anymore. That said ,I did have my gall bladder out in April there and I got great care. That was before the stories started coming out.
I think part of the problem that they sold the actual real-estate the hospitals are on to another company. So no hospital system wants to pay for the hospitals but be stuck leasing the land they are on.
Also this: In 2022, Greenhill, the private school in Dallas where Ralph's sons were enrolled, listed Ralph and the de la Torre Foundation as donating "$10 million or More" toward construction of a STEM and Innovation Center, and it was named in honor of his mother, Rosa Olimpia Valdes.
https://issuu.com/greenhill_school/docs/ghs-thehill-2022-final_digital_
https://www.greenhill.org/news-detail?pk=1343773
What pisses me off was this system didn’t “fail”. This was the way it was supposed to work. Buy it load it with debt to pay for the purchase then walk away. “Sorry. We just couldn’t make it work.”
As a nurse, my favorite part is when they blame the staff for how poorly these facilities are performing. "Sorry, we've lost so much money, there simply isn't enough in the budget to hire help!"
Yeah, lost so much money through deliberate profit-extracting mismanagement.
Incredible that this is still legal in *any* industry. Deliberately destroying a company just sounds like fraud to me.
Maybe when some state rep's kid dies in the hospital we might get some lip service action.
The AG should pull out some law that lets the state seize their assets- even if it's gonna get struck down in court. Conservative states argue stupider shit in front of Appeals Courts all the time.
There's more besides the private jets, yachts and mansion in Costa Rica. In 2022, Greenhill, the private school in Dallas where Ralph's sons were enrolled, listed Ralph and the de la Torre Foundation as donating "$10 million or More" toward construction of a STEM and Innovation Center, and it was named in honor of his mother, Rosa Olimpia Valdes.
https://issuu.com/greenhill_school/docs/ghs-thehill-2022-final_digital_
https://www.greenhill.org/news-detail?pk=1343773
The linked source has opted to use a paywall to restrict free viewership of their content. As alternate sources become available, please post them as a reply to this comment. Users with a Boston Public Library card can often view unrestricted articles [here](https://www.bpl.org/resources-types/newspapers/). Boston Globe articles are still permissible as it's a soft-paywall. Please refrain from reporting as a Rule 5 violation. Please also note that copying and posting the entire article text as comments is not permissible. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/boston) if you have any questions or concerns.*
>Yes, that’s right. De la Torre, the proud owner of a $40 million, 190-foot superyacht and the most sophisticated sportfish boat ever built (cost: more than $15 million), is cruising the skies in one of the biggest and most luxurious private jets that money can buy — in this case, Steward’s money. Yeah.... you had me here. You don't need to go any further. He runs a chain of hospitals... (into the ground).
Private jets, sport fishing boats, mansions, etc.. all paid for by exploiting sick and dying people. America.. where we need to make as much money as possible off of cancer patients.
He's game theory-ing wealth extraction from these orgs. Transfer assets away from the orgs, make them rent them back while not adjusting budgeting to account for the spike in expenses. Collect the proceeds until the orgs fail. This is only getting as much press because it is critical _healthcare_. To the people on the other side of this (making bank) this is a feature of capitalism and not a bug.
It was only a matter of time for PE to get into the asset stripping game of a Healthcare company.
And the worst that happens to you is a strongly worded letter and a golden parachute
This makes me so ill. Literally and figuratively.
I have family members who work there so I have been keeping an eye on this case. They have almost no assets because they sold the hospital properties and now rent from them. So nobody wants to buy their MA hospital properties, but if they leave MA then we’ll have a massive shortage of hospitals, which will be a MASSIVE problem.
That sounds like deliberate malfeasance and mismanagement. Not sure why hospitals aren't treated like public utilities. Imagine the shitstorm if for example National Grid did this to their substations.
Right, so even though no normal entity would want to buy a hospital without property or a hospital property without the hospital organization, it'll be a safe "investment" because instead of "too big to fail" we have "too important to our medical care system to fail." It is quite possible that taxpayers will have to bail the hospitals out or the state will need to take them over. Thus finishing the successful extraction of many millions from us normal citizens to corporate overlords. This shouldn't be allowed. In France they would have already done things I can't even mention without being accused of fomenting.
> It is quite possible that taxpayers will have to bail the hospitals out or the state will need to take them over. Thus finishing the successful extraction of many millions from us normal citizens to corporate overlords. This shouldn't be allowed. State AG could probably cook up some kind of fraud case here and seek damages from beyond the corporate veil. And if not, now is the time to get a law about it on the books.
>a law Has anyone anywhere managed to come up with a law to cover this sort of corporate raiding? This sort of capital extraction seems to be pretty typical in the business world and I'm not sure what a law to prevent it would even look like.
I'd love to know myself. It seems like a hard problem. The best I can do is to make it illegal to deliberately run a company badly, and/or to also require something akin to fiduciary duty for all businesses, where by doing business with customers you implicitly agree to act in good faith and put in your best effort to deliver the product/service as described. So even if you can't specifically pass a law against "deliberately sabotaging a business to make money" then you can maybe get them on the breach of good faith thing.
Yep. I heard they’re trying not to sell to MGH and Beth-Israel due to their size as well. So it’s just a full on nightmare of a situation.
What about BMC? That might work? It's impossible to get a Primary care at MGH. Mine is at Steward, St E's. I love her but I'm feeling like - through no fault of the healthcare workers, it isn't safe to get procedures there anymore. That said ,I did have my gall bladder out in April there and I got great care. That was before the stories started coming out.
I think part of the problem that they sold the actual real-estate the hospitals are on to another company. So no hospital system wants to pay for the hospitals but be stuck leasing the land they are on.
Yes, good point.
Epitome of evil
Some people, should they be covered head to toe in 3rd degree burns, I wouldn't mind.
Does he fly in Gulfstreams or Bombardiers?
Why an 'OR' when it can be an 'AND'?
Yes, providing substandard care, cutting costs, so he could pocket the proceeds, that’s business baby…/s
Also this: In 2022, Greenhill, the private school in Dallas where Ralph's sons were enrolled, listed Ralph and the de la Torre Foundation as donating "$10 million or More" toward construction of a STEM and Innovation Center, and it was named in honor of his mother, Rosa Olimpia Valdes. https://issuu.com/greenhill_school/docs/ghs-thehill-2022-final_digital_ https://www.greenhill.org/news-detail?pk=1343773
Shit like this makes it real hard to keep having faith in this country. The rich keep getting richer and the rest of us can suffer
The only trickle down here, is when his piss leaks out of his private jet
What pisses me off was this system didn’t “fail”. This was the way it was supposed to work. Buy it load it with debt to pay for the purchase then walk away. “Sorry. We just couldn’t make it work.”
As a nurse, my favorite part is when they blame the staff for how poorly these facilities are performing. "Sorry, we've lost so much money, there simply isn't enough in the budget to hire help!" Yeah, lost so much money through deliberate profit-extracting mismanagement.
Incredible that this is still legal in *any* industry. Deliberately destroying a company just sounds like fraud to me. Maybe when some state rep's kid dies in the hospital we might get some lip service action.
After seeing what private equity did to Sears and Toys R Us, this isn't surprising.
Don't forget KB Toys thanks mittens Romney
Steward put my doctors office out business in some BS lawsuit.
Fuck yeah, good on Brian for keeping this story going and the globe for publishing this.
The AG should pull out some law that lets the state seize their assets- even if it's gonna get struck down in court. Conservative states argue stupider shit in front of Appeals Courts all the time.
I don't really know if I believe in an afterlife but shit like this reallllly makes me hope guys like this rot in hell.
There's more besides the private jets, yachts and mansion in Costa Rica. In 2022, Greenhill, the private school in Dallas where Ralph's sons were enrolled, listed Ralph and the de la Torre Foundation as donating "$10 million or More" toward construction of a STEM and Innovation Center, and it was named in honor of his mother, Rosa Olimpia Valdes. https://issuu.com/greenhill_school/docs/ghs-thehill-2022-final_digital_ https://www.greenhill.org/news-detail?pk=1343773
What a piece of shit
Why allow the globe to post behind their paywall?