On Nov. 16, a United States district judge sentenced Roosevelt Hairston — the former general counsel to and executive vice president of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia — to 48 months in prison on charges of mail fraud, money laundering and filing a false tax return.
In July, Hairston, who is expected to report to prison this winter, pled guilty to the above charges.
CHOP, though independent of Penn, is affiliated with the Perelman School of Medicine. It acts as the Medical School’s Department of Pediatrics, in addition to conducting research with Penn scientists.
Hairston began his crime spree in 1999, when he was responsible for coordinating CHOP’s defense against medical malpractice claims. He took advantage of his position by creating fraudulent invoices for non-existent expert medical witnesses and other supposed work done for the hospital, such as consulting services and economic impact studies.
The former general counsel reportedly prepared 126 invoices to obtain checks from the hospital to send to fake entities he set up. According to court documents, the fake entities included LBS Partners, Legal & Business Services Enterprises, L&S Data Services, The Children’s Research Alliance and Orion Development Group. He also filed false tax returns that failed to report the extra income he earned from his schemes.
In total he took $1.7 million from CHOP and made between $500,000 and $700,000 a year as general counsel for CHOP. According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, he used this money to maintain a lavish lifestyle, including a yacht with a captain. Hairston will be paying $1.7 million in restitution to CHOP, as well as $1 million in back-taxes.
Lawrence Stengel of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania was the presiding judge over Hairston’s case.
