Aug. 19, 2010--Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., today announced the indictment of ALEXANDER EVEREST for submitting forged, false documents to Harlem Hospital, and for offering a bribe and unlawful gratuities to a hospital official in an effort to place recent medical school graduates in the hospital's surgical residency program. EVEREST has been indicted on charges of Bribery, Criminal Possession of a Forged Instrument, Offering a False Instrument for Filing, and Giving Unlawful Gratuities. The crimes charged in the indictment occurred between March 17 and May 4 of 2010.
"The defendant not only tried to bribe a State health official, he also disrupted the mechanisms in place for training new doctors," said District Attorney Vance. "I would like to acknowledge the upstanding Harlem Hospital employee for quickly recognizing this wrong-doing, and for reporting it to the proper authorities."
According to documents filed in court, EVEREST was the chairman of Elite American Health Systems, LLC, a company based in California with an office in Manhattan. The defendant offered consulting services to medical school graduates to help them secure hospital residency positions. In March 2010, EVEREST submitted application materials on behalf of four clients to the Department of Surgery at Harlem Hospital, a public hospital and part of the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation ("HHC"). The application materials included forged letters represented to be from a California hospital, stating that Everest's candidates had been accepted into a second-year residency specialty program there. Because these Harlem Hospital positions were designated as prerequisite training positions for more specialized residencies, candidates were ineligible unless they already had been accepted into a specialty program like the one asserted in the letters submitted by EVEREST. In fact, however, the candidates had not been accepted into those specialty programs in California, and the letters submitted by EVEREST were forgeries.
According to documents filed in court, after submitting the applications containing the forged letters to a Harlem Hospital employee, EVEREST presented the employee with a $4,000 check followed by a second check in the amount of $2,000. He characterized the payments as a "Thank You" or an "Easter Love Gift." The employee promptly reported EVEREST's actions to hospital officials and assisted the District Attorney's Office in the investigation that led to today's indictment.
After reporting the initial unlawful payments, the employee told EVEREST that the employee knew the second-year residency letters were forgeries. EVEREST then handed the employee a third check for $6,000 to give EVEREST time to obtain replacement letters from another program. EVEREST then arranged for new letters to be submitted, which falsely claimed his candidates had been accepted into a different specialty program. Those letters were forgeries as well. Shortly before being arrested, EVEREST gave the employee yet another check for $3,000.
According to documents filed in court, EVEREST charged his clients large fees for his corrupt "services," requiring payments in excess of $100,000 apiece. The defendant marketed himself to medical school graduates, particularly of international medical schools, and locked his clients into contracts restricting their freedom to find residency positions on their own. The investigation by the District Attorney's Office is ongoing.
Assistant District Attorney Savvas S. Diacosavvas is assigned to the prosecution, under the supervision of Special Prosecutions Bureau Bureau Chief Thomas Wornom and Deputy Bureau Chief Judy Salwen. Detectives John Peters, Michael Turck, and Michael Bazerman of the District Attorney's Office Squad provided valuable assistance during this investigation, under the supervision of Captain Ronald Haas and Sergeant Edward England.
District Attorney Vance also thanked Byron Chavers, Assistant Director of the HHC Police Department, and Inspector General Norman Dion and First Deputy Inspector General Jean Perrine of the Inspector General's Office for the HHC.
Defendant Information:
ALEXANDER EVEREST, D.O.B. 7/31/1980
North Ridge, CA
Charges:
- Bribery in the Third Degree, 1 count, class D felony
- Criminal Possession of a Forged Instrument in the Second Degree, 5 counts, class D felony
- Offering a False Instrument for Filing in the First Degree, 8 counts, class E felony
- Giving Unlawful Gratuities, 3 counts, class A misdemeanor
A class D felony is publishable by up to 7 years in prison, and a class E felony is punishable by up to 4 years in prison. A class A misdemeanor is punishable by up to 1 year in jail.
###