Huntington Hospital Countersues Emergency Room Expansion Contractor

Huntington Hospital has countersued a contractor that worked on its incomplete emergency center after the contractor sued the hospital claiming it was owed money after it was fired in the midst of a kickback scandal.

The hospital filed a cross-complaint against Tower General Contractors seeking $9 million in damages after Tower sued the hospital for more than $5 million it claims it is owed, according to the Pasadena Star-News.

The contractor was fired in August after former hospital officials admitted to giving out construction contracts in exchange for kickbacks. John Haw, a former hospital attorney and construction manager, pleaded guilty last year to two federal counts of mail fraud for his role in the scheme that illegally paid him nearly $350,000 over the course of a year, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

The DOJ said Haw had a deal with the hospital's director of construction, David Hamedany, where he would pay kickbacks to Hamedany in exchange for more legal and consulting work on the emergency department overhaul. Hamedany pleaded guilty to two counts of mail fraud and was sentenced in January 2012 to three years in federal prison.