A federal grand jury indicted Roger Williams Medical Center and its president and CEO, Robert A. Urciuoli, Thursday on charges that they corruptly employed former state Sen. John A. Celona, D-North Providence, to advance the interests of Roger Williams Medical Center in the General Assembly.
Also indicted were former hospital executive Frances P. Driscoll and Peter J. Sangermano Jr., a principal of Village Retirement Communities, which operated The Village at Elmhurst, an assisted-living facility, in partnership with the hospital.
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The 38-count indictment charges the defendants with conspiracy to deprive Rhode Island citizens of Celona’s honest services and using the mail to do so. Celona has pleaded guilty to federal fraud charges and has agreed to cooperate with the government in a continuing investigation.
“This remains an extremely active investigation, one to which both my office and our law enforcement partners have devoted very extensive resources,” said U.S. Attorney Robert Clark Corrente in a statement.
Rhode Island Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch, who first announced an investigation of Celona in December 2003, issued a statement saying that “today is an important day, marking another blow against corruption” in the state. Lynch secured a five-count indictment against Celona on state charges in April, and he said the case is in the pre-trial stages, adding: “Our work is not done.”
The indictment covers a time period during which Celona was a member of the Senate Corporations Committee and, for part of that period, its chairman. He was also a member of the Committee on Health, Education and Welfare. Both committees had jurisdiction over legislation affecting health care facilities.
Urciuoli, a 32-year veteran of Roger Williams, has been president since 1988, but was placed on paid “administrative leave” effective last Dec. 5. Driscoll was, from 1989 until May 2000, a senior vice president at the hospital.
According to the indictment, as described in a news release from Corrente, the defendants “devised a ruse” to have Roger Williams Medical Center pay Celona as a consultant for The Village at Elmhurst so Roger Williams could use him to influence legislation.
Celona’s “ostensible duties,” the release says, were to “trumpet services available to seniors” at the assisted-living facility, but he was actually being paid by the hospital and his job was to advance its agenda in the General Assembly.
The indictment alleges that, between 1998 and 2004, Roger Williams paid Celona about $260,000 in consultant fees and, in return, Celona took steps to kill bills deemed harmful to Roger Williams and to advance legislation that Urciuoli and Driscoll considered favorable. Celona allegedly stifled bills in committees and pressured other legislators to back off bills that ran counter to the hospital’s agenda.
Among the specific acts alleged:
The indictment also alleges that Urciuoli, Driscoll, Sangermano, Celona, and others deceived Rhode Island citizens about Celona’s true relationship with Roger Williams by providing false information to the Rhode Island Ethics Commission. A 1998 letter to the Ethics Commission seeking an advisory opinion about Celona reported that he was employed by the Village at but did not disclose that he was actually being paid by the medical center and was doing political work for it.
In addition, the indictment alleges that, at Urciuoli’s direction, Celona pressured health insurers to increase their reimbursements to Roger Williams for health care services.
After a meeting with an insurance company executive in 2001, Celona allegedly sent an e-mail message to Urciuoli saying: “I hope I didn’t lay it on… too much yesterday.” Urciuoli allegedly replied that the executive “deserved to get cranked around.”
The indictment charges Urciuoli, Driscoll, Sangermano and Roger Williams Medical Center with conspiracy to defraud the citizens of Rhode Island of their right to Celona’s honest services, and it charges Driscoll with one count of mail fraud and Urciuoli, Sangermano, and Roger Williams with 36 counts of mail fraud – one for each check allegedly mailed to Celona to cover his consultant fees.
The charges are all felonies, with a maximum penalty of five years’ imprisonment and a $250,000 fine for conspiracy and 20 years’ imprisonment and a $250,000 fine for each mail fraud count. Corrente said a summons would be issued for the defendants to appear for arraignment in U.S. District Court, Providence, at a yet-to-be-determined date.
In September, Celona admitted that he used his position as a senator to fraudulently advance the interests of corporations that paid him consultant fees. He is free pending his sentencing, scheduled for May 11, and has agreed to cooperate with the government in its investigation.
Roger Williams Medical Center has appointed Kenneth H. Belcher, most recently a vice president at Boston Medical Center, as interim president and CEO, effective last Dec. 12.
When Urciuoli went on leave, Roger Williams board President Edward A. Hjerpe – Rhode Island and Massachusetts president for Webster Bank – said in a news release that the hospital trustees and Urciuoli had come to “a mutual agreement that a change is in the best interest of the institution, its patients, the medical staff and the employees.”
