Rick Scott - Republican Candidate for Governor of Florida

Rick Scott sent numerous campaign fliers prior to the election including one that “refuted false campaign statements made about him”.  He claims that the charge of keeping double books at Columbia/HCA (where he was Chairman and CEO) was not only good practice, it was mandatory in case you lost one set.

This is actually what happened, excerpted from https://www.theledger.com/article/LK/20100819/News/608091204/LL

(John Schilling was an accountant at Columbia/HCA who informed the FBI of the fraudulent practices at the company)

“Scott’s hospitals kept a double set of books. The one with inflated costs was sent to Medicare. The list of legitimate expenses, often marked “Confidential: Do Not Show to Medicare Auditors,” was kept for internal recordkeeping, Schilling testified in court. Columbia/HCA hospitals had been billing U.S. taxpayers for a variety of expenses that Medicare did not cover, including lavish parties, gifts and other perks to physicians, Schilling said. Physicians received Super Bowl tickets and hunting trips in violation of laws against kickbacks. The list of non-reimbursable items Scott’s employees submitted to Medicare was staggering and eventually contributed to a record $1.7 billion penalty and 14 fraud convictions. It also cost Scott his job. But while Scott has said he takes responsibility for what happened at Columbia/HCA, his campaign also maintains that other companies were doing the same thing and that the fraud case in the late 1990s was politically motivated. Scott was ousted from the company in the ensuing uproar, leaving with an estimated $300 million in stock and compensation.”

Post script:  Rick Scott has just been elected Governor of Florida