WHAT A HEEL: Healthcare Recruiter Accused Of Bribery
Alexander Everest, promised foreign medical school graduates that his company, Elite American Health Systems, could place them in residency training programs paying at leading U.S. hospitals – for a cool $100,000 fee. NY prosecutors allege that he submitted forged documents and bribed an employee who handled residency applications to get four candidates placed at Harlem Hospital, The Wall Street Journal reports:
Mr. Everest, 30 years old, of California, pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges of bribery, criminal possession of a forged instrument, offering a false instrument for filing, and giving unlawful gratuities. … George Vomvolakis, Mr. Everest's lawyer … said his client "is a very generous guy - and his generosity was mistaken for a bribe." …
Evelyn Hernandez, a spokeswoman for the New York City Health and Hospitals Corp., said Mr. Everett approached Harlem Hospital for slots for first-year residents. The slots required applicants to have been accepted already to a second-year specialty program in another hospital.
Mr. Everest allegedly provided an employee at the hospital with forged letters from a California hospital to show that the applicants had been accepted into a second-year program. And he gave her a check for $4,000, followed by another check for $2,000. She reported him to hospital officials, and later told him she knew the letters were forged. He then allegedly gave her $6,000 for time to get a letter from a different hospital - which was also forged - and gave her $3,000 more before he was arrested.
If Everest is convicted on the bribery charge, he could be sentenced to as much as seven years in prison.
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