The Hospital’s Closing; Who Will Notice the Missing Charity Money?

Irvine, California used to have Irvine Regional Hospital. The hospital closed back in 2009 (but has since reopened as Hoag Hospital Irvine). When I lived in Irvine one of my doctors has his office in the medical building that’s attached to the hospital. I imagine he’s a bit perturbed over the following story.

Dr. Bruce Hagadorn was chief of staff at the hospital and was on the board of the hospital’s charity committee. As the hospital neared closing the committee had to decide what to do with the $250,000 in the charity fund. They decided to the Hoag Hospital Foundation.

The money didn’t end up there.
Instead, it allegedly went into Dr. Hagadorn’s personal medical practice. I can’t say he embezzled the money as Dr. Hagadorn didn’t plead guilty to that. Instead, he pleaded guilty to eight tax evasion charges related to not reporting the money as income on his tax returns. Dr. Hagadorn will get to spend a year at ClubCal thinking that decision over. He has already made restitution of the funds and paid his state income tax debt of $103,865.

As readers of this blog definitely know, embezzled money–oops, money that’s income that comes into your possession–is taxable. Yes, illegal income is just as taxable as legal income. I don’t know if Dr. Hagadorn would be $147,000 wealthier if he had paid tax on the $250,000, but he might be. It also goes to show that the doctors at Irvine Regional Hospital did notice where the money didn’t go to.

One Response to “The Hospital’s Closing; Who Will Notice the Missing Charity Money?”

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