Cheers: The New Year Cometh; The Nonprofit Fraudsters Taketh

by Gary Snyder

Baltimore Behavioral Health Center has been frequently in the news, but not for good:

• ·        According to the IRS, BBHC owes $ 4 million in unpaid payroll taxes.
• ·        IT has at least $5.5 million in liabilities
• ·       Its debts include $900,000 owed to a contractor providing counseling services
• ·       It was fined $90,000 for hiring Dr. Roman Ostrovsky as an administrator. Ostrovsky was on a federal no-hire list because of a fraud conviction.
• ·       The agency has been sued for allegedly absconding with money that was supposed to go into staff retirement accounts
• ·       In 2010, a husband-and-wife team held lead administrative positions with Morris Hill as president and Sandra Hill as Vice President for Clinical and Medical services. Oddly, each was paid $252,992 in 2009.A son of Sandra Hill was paid $347,000 in 2008 for his role as chief executive and chief financial officer.  Sandra Hill's son-in-law was the chief doctor
• ·       The organization did not have audited financial statements and Morris Hill prepared BBH’s 990 and no outside accountant reviewed the group’s books
• ·       In 2002, Nicholas Scotto was listed as chief of psychiatry though he was at the time on probation with the Maryland Board of Physicians. In the late nineties he was by his own admission addicted. He was convicted of writing inappropriate prescriptions, went bankrupt and finally entered rehab where he continued to write prescriptions

BBH has received more than $65 million over the past five years in government payments, largely from billing the Medicaid program for the poor and disabled." The Baltimore Sun's 2010 coverage revealed unusually high Medicaid billings and detailed the clinic's control.

Nonprofit Imperative gathers its information principally from public documents...some of which are directly quoted. Virtually all cited are in some phase of criminal proceedings; some have not been charged, however. Cites in various media: Featured in print, broadcast, and online media outlets, including: Vermont Public Radio, Miami Herald, National Public Radio, Huffington Post, The Sun News, Atlanta Journal Constitution, Wall Street Journal (Profile, News and Photos), FOX2, ABC Spotlight on the News, WWJ Radio, Ethics World, Aspen Philanthropy Newsletter, Harvard Business Review, Current Affairs, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, St. Petersburg Times, B, USA Today Topics, Newsweek.com, Responsive Philanthropy Magazine, New York Times...and many more Nonprofits: On the Brink (2006) Silence: The Impending Threat to the Charitable Sector (2011)