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Whistleblower tells Congress Steward Health Care CEO Ralph de la Torre bragged he could sway foreign officials with “brown bags” of cash
A whistleblower has come forward to Congress alleging Steward Health Care CEO Ralph de la Torre and other Steward executives illegally conspired with foreign officials to secure a hospital contract abroad, CBS News has learned.
“In touting Steward’s supposed competitive advantage in Malta… de la Torre boasted that he could issue ‘brown bags’ to government officials if necessary to close transactions,” Ram Tumuluri, a health care executive who worked with the Maltese government, wrote in a complaint to Congress, shared with CBS News.
In the submission, which was sent to a U.S. Senate committee investigating the hospital company’s collapse, Tumuluri describes a 2017 meeting involving the Steward CEO and alleges de la Torre was “insinuating he would bribe officials of the Government of Malta.” A committee staffer confirmed receipt of the complaint and said they are reviewing it.
In a statement, a spokesperson for de la Torre called Tumuluri’s allegations “preposterous” and said Steward’s international arm acted “in a lawful and transparent manner throughout the period in which the company was operating Malta.”
“There is no basis to accuse Dr. de la Torre of anything, nor is there any evidence that he or anyone at Steward International engaged in wrongdoing,” the spokesperson wrote.
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Tumuluri’s allegations come as an avalanche of scrutiny has fallen on Steward, which declared bankruptcy earlier this year. A federal grand jury in Boston probing the company is examining the compensation, spending, and travel of its top executives, including de la Torre, a person familiar with the matter told CBS News. And the whistleblower complaint, emerges as de la Torre has asked to postpone testifying on Capitol Hill in response to a subpoena requiring him to appear on Sept. 12.
Meanwhile, the Dallas-based company has been struggling to find buyers for more than 30 hospitals it owns around the country. Last week, two Steward facilities in Massachusetts closed, leaving about 1,200 workers jobless, according to the state.
CBS News has been reporting on Steward’s activities as part of a year-and-a-half-long investigation documenting how private equity and other investor groups have siphoned hundreds of millions of dollars from community hospitals with .
Records reviewed by CBS News showed Steward hospitals around the country left a trail of unpaid bills, at times risking a shortage of potentially life-saving supplies.
Last month, patients as young as five years old had to be abruptly transferred out of a Steward-run behavioral health hospital in Phoenix after its air conditioning system failed and temperatures inside the facility reached 99 degrees.
A survey by Arizona’s Health Department, which ordered the hospital to cease operations, revealed the facility was consistently understaffed and found “multiple issues with the HVAC systems, elevators, and kitchen equipment with no documentation of repairs being made.”
The convening of a grand jury suggests there is potential for the embattled health care company and its executives to face criminal charges, though no charges have been brought.
De la Torre’s spokesperson declined to comment whether the CEO is a target of the federal probe, but said any investigation into compensation would “show that Steward’s executives, including Dr. de la Torre, were paid under market by acceptable industry standards.”
The money trail
A review of financial disclosures and bankruptcy filings raises questions about whether de la Torre was using company money to fund a lavish lifestyle, that included two corporate jets owned by a Steward affiliate worth $95 million, according to the Senate panel.
In 2021, Steward’s owners paid themselves millions in dividends, the same year de la Torre acquired a 190-foot yacht estimated to be worth $40 million.
In the year before it declared bankruptcy, Steward also paid tens of millions of dollars to other companies where de la Torre held significant stakes. Those payments included a $37 million for “management fees” to a company called CREF where de la Torre owned about a 40% stake, according to a person familiar with the ownership structure.
A spokesperson for CREF said the company provided an array of “real estate and facility-related services” to Steward’s hospitals and de la Torre sold his stake last month.
The spokesperson also confirmed CREF won a competitive bidding process to oversee construction of a new science center named after de la Torre’s mother at the Dallas private school his children attended — an arrangement first reported by the Boston Globe. Bankruptcy filings show Steward also donated $3 million directly to the school in 2023.
In her statement, de La Torre’s spokesperson said the CEO had “invested more — professionally, personally and monetarily — into Steward Health Care that he has taken out of it,” noting that he used his stake in Steward and other assets to personally guarantee loans made to the company.
“Dr. de la Torre did everything in his power to help Steward Health Care overcome numerous industry headwinds and challenges, including personally purchasing necessary equipment and supplies in order to address the needs of patients and personally guaranteeing loans for the company with his assets,” the spokesperson wrote.
She pointed to a recent bankruptcy filing, which showed the company reimbursed him for more than $1 million in vendor expenses he personally paid between May 2023 and April 2024.
The same filing showed during that time period, de la Torre was paid a salary of more than $4 million.
Defying a subpoena?
On Wednesday, de la Torre’s attorney, Alexander Merton, wrote to the Senate committee investigating Steward saying his client would “not participate” in the hearing, asserting the testimony needed to be postponed until after the bankruptcy proceedings were resolved.
“Unfortunately, while Dr. de la Torre has continued to fight for Steward hospitals and the patients and communities they serve, members of this Committee continue to cast aspersions on Dr. de la Torre and appear determined to turn the hearing into a pseudo-criminal proceeding,” Merton wrote.
The letter triggered bipartisan pushback. Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, the committee’s ranking Republican member, said “defying a congressional subpoena is consistent with a disregard for norms,” adding it was important for de la Torre to address “allegations that assets were drained” for his financial benefit.
In a joint statement, Senators Elizabeth Warren and Edward Markey, both Democrats from Massachusetts, said de la Torre “must be held in contempt if he fails to appear before the committee.”
“Dr. de la Torre’s defiance of a subpoena to appear before the Senate is outrageous,” their’ statement read. “He owes the public and Congress answers for his appalling greed.”
A “campaign of unlawful coercion”
Steward’s dealings in Malta have drawn the interest of American prosecutors, according to people familiar with the matter. In July, CBS News first reported federal prosecutors at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Boston were investigating Steward on various allegations including fraud and violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
An attorney for the whistleblower, Andrew Bakaj, told CBS News in a statement Tumuluri first raised his allegations that Steward violated that law — which prohibits U.S. citizens and entities from engaging in corrupt activities — to the Department of Justice in April 2023.
Tumuluri’s company won a contract to run three of Malta’s public hospitals in 2015. In his complaint to Congress, Tumuluri alleges de la Torre and other executives “conspired with” Maltese officials on a “campaign of unlawful coercion” to gain control of the contract Tumuluri’s company had won.
According to the complaint, which spans more than 500 pages, the conspiracy allegedly involved an effort to have Tumuluri arrested and included repeated death threats aimed at him.
De la Torre’s spokesperson said Steward took over the Maltese hospital contract only after Tumuluri’s company “failed to deliver on its promises” and government officials were looking to replace it.
Last year, a judge in Malta canceled the contract altogether. An appeals court upheld the decision, citing “collusion between Steward and senior government officials or its agencies,” according to reporting by the Times of Malta.
“As more damaging information is brought to light every day, we call on both the Department of Justice as well as Congress to finally hold Steward accountable for placing personal gain over the health of the patients they serve,” Bakaj said in a statement.
A Maltese magistrate has recommended corruption charges against de la Torre and other Steward executives as part of an inquiry de la Torre’s spokesperson wrote “was not based on an objective or reliable investigation, and there is no evidence of wrongdoing or illegal conduct by Steward international or its leadership.”
The Attorney General’s office in Malta did not immediately respond for comment
The magistrate also recommended charges against Tumuluri, but Bakaj said he is not aware of any action by the Maltese government and called the inquiry “far from independent, having been initiated by political actors.”
“Mr. Tumuluri, on multiple occasions, has offered his assistance and testimony to the Malta authorities to ensure justice is done for the Maltese people,” Bakaj wrote. “Ignored by Malta, this is why Mr. Tumuluri approached the U.S. authorities.”
Bela Karolyi, the charismatic if polarizing gymnastics coach who turned young women into champions and the United States into an international power, has died. He was 82.
A spokesperson for USA Gymnastics confirmed to CBS News by email that Karolyi died Friday. No cause of death was given.
Karolyi and wife Martha trained multiple Olympic gold medalists and world champions in the U.S. and Romania, including Nadia Comaneci and Mary Lou Retton.
Ron Jenkins/Fort Worth Star-Telegram/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
“A big impact and influence on my life,” Comaneci, who was just 14 when Karolyi coached her to gold for Romania at the 1976 Montreal Olympics, posted on Instagram.
The Karolyis defected to the United States in 1981 and over the next 30-plus years became a guiding force in American gymnastics, though not without controversy. Bela helped guide Retton — all of 16 — to the Olympic all-around title at the 1984 Games in Los Angeles and memorably helped an injured Kerri Strug off the floor at the 1996 Games in Atlanta after Strug’s vault secured the team gold for the Americans.
Karolyi briefly became the national team coordinator for USA Gymnastics women’s elite program in 1999 and incorporated a semi-centralized system that eventually turned the Americans into the sport’s gold standard. It did not come without a cost. He was pushed out after the 2000 Olympics after several athletes spoke out about his tactics.
It would not be the last time Karolyi was accused of grandstanding and pushing his athletes too far physically and mentally.
During the height of the Larry Nassar scandal in the late 2010s — when the disgraced former USA Gymnastics team doctor was effectively given a life sentence after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting gymnasts and other athletes with his hands under the guise of medical treatment — over a dozen former gymnasts came forward saying the Karolyis were part of a system that created an oppressive culture that allowed Nassar’s behavior to run unchecked for years.
Still, some of Karolyi’s most famous students were always among his staunchest defenders. When Strug got married, she and Karolyi took a photo recreating their famous scene from the 1996 Olympics, when he carried her onto the medals podium after she vaulted on a badly sprained ankle.
Despite losing his boxing match to Jake Paul, Mike Tyson in a social media post Saturday said he had “no regrets” to getting “in ring one last time.”
The boxing legend was defeated by social media star Jake Paul in a highly anticipated fight on Friday night with an age difference of over three decades between the two contenders.
Netflix said Saturday that 60 million households worldwide tuned in to watch the match. The two fighters went eight full rounds, with each round two minutes long. Paul defeated Tyson by unanimous decision and the 27-year-old upset boxer and 58-year-old former heavyweight champion hugged afterward.
Paul was expected to earn about $40 million from the fight, and Tyson was expected to take around $20 million for the fight, according to DraftKings and other online reports.
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Tyson said on his social media that “this is one of those situations when you lost but still won. I’m grateful for last night.”
The fight almost didn’t happen after Tyson experienced an ulcer flare-up while on a plane in March. He addressed his illness Saturday, writing that he “almost died in June.” He said he had eight blood transfusions and “lost half my blood and 25lbs in hospital and had to fight to get healthy to fight so I won.”
Tyson retired from boxing in 2005 after a 20-year career. He last fought in a 2020 exhibition match against former four-division world champ Roy Jones Jr.
“To have my children see me stand toe to toe and finish 8 rounds with a talented fighter half my age in front of a packed Dallas Cowboy stadium is an experience that no man has the right to ask for. Thank you,” he said.
Alex Sundby and
contributed to this report.
In their final meeting, China’s leader Xi Jinping told U.S. President Biden that his nation was “ready to work with a new administration,” as President-elect Donald Trump prepares to take over.
The two leaders gathered Saturday on the sidelines of the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. Mr. Biden was expected to urge Xi to dissuade North Korea from further deepening its support for Russia’s war on Ukraine. It marked their first in-person meeting since they met in Northern California last November.
Without mentioning Trump’s name, Xi appeared to signal his concern that the incoming president’s protectionist rhetoric on the campaign trail could send the U.S.-China relationship into another valley.
“China is ready to work with a new U.S. administration to maintain communication, expand cooperation and manage differences so as to strive for a steady transition of the China-U.S. relationship for the benefit of the two peoples,” Xi said through an interpreter.
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Mr. Biden, meanwhile, spoke in broader brushstrokes about where the relationship has gone and reflected not just on the past four years, but on their long relationship.
“Over the past four years, China-U.S. relations have experienced ups and downs, but with the two of us at the helm, we have also engaged in fruitful dialogues and cooperation, and generally achieved stability,” he said.
Mr. Biden and Xi, with top aides surrounding them, gathered around a long rectangle of tables in an expansive conference room at Lima’s Defines Hotel and Conference Center.
There’s much uncertainty about what lies ahead in the U.S.-China relationship under Trump, who campaigned promising to levy 60% tariffs on Chinese imports.
Bobby Djavaheri, president of Los Angeles-based Yedi Houseware Appliances — which manufactures its products in China — told CBS News in an interview this week that such tariffs “would decimate our business, but not only our business. It would decimate all small businesses that rely on importing.”
Trump has also proposed revoking China’s Most Favored Nation trade status, phasing out all imports of essential goods from China and banning China from buying U.S. farmland.
Already, many American companies, including Nike and eyewear retailer Warby Parker, have been diversifying their sourcing away from China. Shoe brand Steve Madden says it plans to cut imports from China by as much as 45% next year.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Biden administration officials will advise the Trump team that managing the intense competition with Beijing will likely be the most significant foreign policy challenge they will face.
It’s a big moment for Mr. Biden as he wraps up more than 50 years in politics. He saw his relationship with Xi as among the most consequential on the international stage and put much effort into cultivating that relationship.
Mr. Biden and Xi first got to know each other on travels across the U.S. and China when both were vice presidents, interactions that both have said left a lasting impression.
“For over a decade, you and I have spent many hours together, both here and in China and in between. And I think we’ve spent a long time dealing with these issues,” Mr. Biden said Saturday.
But the last four years have presented a steady stream of difficult moments.
The FBI this week offered new details of a federal investigation into Chinese government efforts to hack into U.S. telecommunications networks. The initial findings have revealed a “broad and significant” cyberespionage campaign aimed at stealing information from Americans who work in government and politics.
U.S. intelligence officials also have assessed China has surged sales to Russia of machine tools, microelectronics and other technology that Moscow is using to produce missiles, tanks, aircraft and other weaponry for use in its war against Ukraine.
And tensions flared last year after Mr. Biden ordered the shooting down of a Chinese spy balloon that traversed the United States.
