Former hospital official sentenced to three years in kickback scheme

A former construction director of a Southern California hospital was sentenced to three years in prison for a kickback scheme that cost his employer nearly $5 million, according to federal prosecutors.

Prosecutors alleged that David Hamedany led 541-bed Huntington Hospital in Pasadena to enter contracts with construction companies that performed no work or substantially less work than was promised. Most of the money the hospital paid was funneled to companies Hamedany controlled, according to a news release from the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles (PDF).

Hamedany, 55, was indicted in January 2011 on 12 counts of mail fraud and in May pleaded guilty to two of those counts. His plea agreement with prosecutors was filed under seal.

In addition to the prison sentence, a federal judge in Los Angeles ordered Hamedany to pay $4.8 million in restitution, according to the release, and Hamedany agreed to give the hospital ownership of his house, vehicles and $500,000 seized last year from a bank account.

Spokeswoman Andrea Stradling said in an e-mail that the hospital is pleased with the sentencing and that the scheme was detected by an internal audit and referred to prosecutors. "Huntington Hospital anticipates that there will be no impact on hospital operations and services provided to our community,” Stradling said.