‘A fiefdom’: One Brooklyn Health board sued over CEO’s ouster

NEW YORK — A member of One Brooklyn Health’s board is suing chair Alexander Rovt, a billionaire businessperson and major political donor in New York, over a recent vote to oust the hospital network’s chief executive.

The yet-to-be-reported petition, which was filed by board member Maurice Reid and former State Assemblymember Annette Robinson, accuses Rovt of breaching his fiduciary duties by making “reckless” and false statements maligning One Brooklyn Health CEO LaRay Brown in an interview with POLITICO in September and “lavishing expensive perks” on fellow board members.

The claims are the latest chapter in the ongoing political saga surrounding the financially struggling health system, which runs three private hospitals in central Brooklyn that predominantly serve low-income patients.

Rovt — who has contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to the campaigns of Gov. Kathy Hochul and former Mayor Bill de Blasio, Gov. Andrew Cuomo and President Donald Trump — has chaired One Brooklyn Health’s board since it was formed in 2016 at Cuomo’s behest. The medical system went on to receive nearly $700 million from the state to help it stabilize its finances.

The petition claims the “perks” amounted to thousands of dollars and included several trips by board members for their personal business and affairs. It also alleges that he placed a new and unvetted member on the board “just in time” to vote to end Brown’s contract, although the member is not named.

At the same time, the board failed to institute a conflict-of-interest protocol, even after members agreed in March to address “a number of issues” dealing with conflicts of interest, Reid and Robinson’s lawyer, William T. Martin, said in a sworn statement included in court papers.

“Chairman Rovt has developed a fiefdom amongst members of the Board and has actually enriched member(s) of the Board with personal emoluments and unilaterally picking Board members to fill vacant positions,” Robinson, a patient of One Brooklyn Health and member of the City Council before being elected to the state Assembly, said in an affidavit.

The petition calls for the dissolution of One Brooklyn Health’s board, the removal of Rovt as chair and the reversal of its decision to end Brown’s contract.

Reached by phone on Wednesday, Rovt denied blaming Brown for the health system’s financial woes, despite previously telling POLITICO, “she spends too much money on different kinds of things,” including executive salaries. He declined to comment further.

In the September interview with POLITICO, Rovt said the board decided to end Brown’s contract after hearing a “very weak” personal evaluation and discovering the system had accumulated over $600 million in debt, which Brown denied.

One Brooklyn Health later released a KPMG audit that reported a net deficit of just under $300 million at the end of 2022, down from $425 million at the end of 2021.

Brown could not be reached for comment.

In contrast to the charges of Rovt’s “lavish” spending on the board, One Brooklyn Health has for years been in dire financial straits. It is what’s known as a “safety-net hospital,” meaning a majority of its patients are on Medicaid or uninsured. As a result, the system depends heavily on government funding to stay afloat.

A seat chairing the board affords Rovt — an international real estate developer and nursing home magnate who made his fortune in the fertilizer industry — a front-row seat to the system’s spending of Cuomo’s $664 million state grant.

The One Brooklyn Health board voted 10-4 in September against renewing Brown’s contract, as POLITICO first reported. The move sparked an outcry among the politically influential health care union 1199SEIU and Brooklyn lawmakers, who rallied in Brown’s support.

Rovt simultaneously serves as vice chair of the board of directors of Maimonides Medical Center, also in Brooklyn, which the petition characterizes as a conflict of interest. Maimonides has experienced similar financial difficulties to One Brooklyn Health, due in part to high proportions of Medicaid and uninsured patients.

Last year Maimonides, too, was roiled in conflict amid efforts to oust and replace its leadership. Its CEO, Kenneth Gibbs, managed to hold onto his position.