A U.S. Senate committee on Thursday voted to pursue seeking civil enforcement and criminal charges against the CEO of troubled Steward Health Care System for ignoring a legal order to testify about the company’s finances and mishandling of its hospitals.

“Dr. de la Torre has made clear through his corporate attorneys, his lavish spending and his failure to appear before this committee that he feels no accountability to the patients who died, the workers who Steward fired and other communities that have been left behind,” said Sen. Edward Markey of Massachusetts ahead of the committee’s vote. “Today, we are making clear to Dr. de la Torre and the other CEOs, private equity investors and corporate executives who treat the healthcare system like their own personal piggy bank that your millions do not shield you from accountability to a legal order issued by the United States Senate.”

The two resolutions to hold Steward Health CEO Dr. Ralph de la Torre in contempt passed the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee Thursday with a 20-0 vote, with one abstention. Both resolutions will now go to the full Senate for a vote.

One of the resolutions is to authorize a civil suit against the hospital executive and ask the court to order he comply with the subpoena and testify before the committee.

The other is to pursue criminal charges against de la Torre for failing to comply with the subpoena.

Steward CEO invokes Fifth Amendment

The move comes after de la Torre ignored the committee’s legal order to testify at a Sept. 12 hearing about the financial troubles that led the company to seek bankruptcy protections under Chapter 11 in May. His attorney notified senators just days before the hearing that the hospital executive would not testify, saying it would be “inappropriate” and also “may run afoul of the federal court order prohibiting” him from discussing Steward’s bankruptcy-related issues during the process.

The CEO has since invoked his rights under the Fifth Amendment to avoid answering questions that could potentially incriminate him.

The committee, which has launched its own inquiry into the healthcare system’s bankruptcy, had repeatedly asked the CEO to voluntarily testify about the problems that have affected patient care at its hospitals across the country. Doctors and nurses at Steward’s hospitals have seen cutbacks, layoffs, shutdowns and problems with supplies, equipment and delayed payments to vendors and workers, including in Miami-Dade and Broward counties.

In July, the committee voted to subpoena de la Torre to get him in front of Congress. De la Torre’s attorney, who has described the hearing as a “pseudo-criminal proceeding” against the CEO, asked for it to be rescheduled until after the bankruptcy process was completed. The committee declined and said the CEO’s reasons to not attend had no merit.

After Thursday’s vote, a spokesperson for de la Torre referred the Miami Herald to a letter the CEO’s attorney sent Sen. Bernie Sanders the day before. In the letter, attorney Alexander J. Merton doubled down on why de la Torre could not testify and said the CEO was invoking his Fifth Amendment right to avoid answering questions, even under subpoena, in a hearing that is meant to “frame Dr. de la Torre as a criminal scapegoat for the systemic failures in Massachusetts’ health care system.”

The legal drama comes as Steward has made headway in Houston bankruptcy court.

Steward had been trying to sell all 31 of its hospitals, including eight in Florida, to thin $9 billion in debt as part of its restructuring plans. It recently made a deal with Medical Properties Trust, the company that owns the land its hospitals sit on, to keep hospitals open while the search for permanent operators continue, including for Palmetto General Hospital in Hialeah, Coral Gables Hospital, Hialeah Hospital, North Shore Medical Center in North Miami-Dade and Florida Medical Center in Lauderdale Lakes. It found buyers for some of its other hospitals, including three Florida Space Coast hospitals.

The Senate’s pending contempt vote isn’t the only problem de la Torre is facing. Steward Health is under federal investigation for possible corruption related to business dealings involving state-run hospitals it managed in Malta, an island in Southern Europe.

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