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NURSING HOME FIGURE GETS 10 YEAR TAX EVASION SENTENCE

August 13, 2008

The judge threw the book at one of the executives who helped run 70 nursing homes, including some in Iowa. Steven Ewing received the maximum 10-year sentence for tax charges involved in skimming funds from the businesses. The funds financed a spending spree, according to coverage in the Des Moines Register:

According to court records, the executives diverted other money that could have paid for improved care and supervision of 6,000 seniors living in the company's 70 nursing homes. Instead, the money was used to pay for luxury cars for the executives, antiques, monthly trips to England and Australia, and shopping trips to the Gap, Saks Fifth Avenue and Wal-Mart.

As bad as prison will be, it sounds like it might be better than, say, one of his nursing homes:

George Baker Jr. was 54 years old when he burned to death in his wheelchair on the patio of the CLC University nursing home in Des Moines in 2002.

State inspectors cited the home for a lack of supervision, noting that Baker had been left alone on the patio to smoke cigarettes, despite having a pressurized container of oxygen strapped to his chair. When the tank exploded, Baker was consumed by fire before he could be rescued.

I understand that some prisons are now no-smoking zones.

Texas Attorney Gary Trebert was scheduled to be sentenced later based on a plea bargain (the original version of this post incorrectly said he had received a 10-year sentence; we apologize for the error).

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