A former hospital executive siphoned at least $14 million from a health system and used company money to bankroll a lavish lifestyle that included a $109,000 Beverly Hills baptism celebration for his son, according to a bombshell lawsuit.
Michael Sarian, the ousted founder and former CEO of Healthcare Systems of America, was accused of diverting millions of dollars from hospitals in Florida and other states into personal accounts, family trusts and other unauthorized uses while the facilities struggled to pay bills and maintain operations.
The lawsuit, which was first reported by the Miami Herald, alleges Sarian treated company accounts as his personal piggy bank, funneling millions out of the health system between September 2024 and January 2026.
Among the most eye-popping allegations is a claim that more than $109,000 was wired from a Healthcare Systems of America corporate account to the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills for Sarian’s son’s baptism celebration.
The filing includes a social-media post allegedly showing the event, as well as banking records identifying a baptism as the purpose of the transfer.
The suit also alleges Sarian forged — or directed someone else to forge — an employee’s signature to divert another $120,000.
Sarian has denied wrongdoing.
He and his wife, Evelina, have argued that the baptism payment was an authorized repayment of money he previously advanced to help cover hospital payroll and have characterized the allegations as part of an effort to seize control of the company.
The legal fight is the latest twist in a bitter legal battle for control of a hospital network that operates Palmetto General Hospital, Coral Gables Hospital, Hialeah Hospital, North Shore Medical Center and Florida Medical Center.
According to the complaint, Sarian’s transfers contributed to severe financial strain across the system, impairing its ability to meet payroll, pay vendors, compensate physicians and satisfy other operating obligations.
The lawsuit cited by the Herald alleges that within a day of Healthcare Systems of America receiving more than $16 million intended to support hospital operations and acquisitions, $1.28 million was transferred into Sarian’s personal accounts.
Plaintiffs claim Sarian has failed to provide a full accounting of the transfers.
Sarian disputes the allegations and has accused Faisal Gill — a former family attorney who now controls the Florida hospital system — of orchestrating a corporate takeover.
Gill has denied those accusations, saying the litigation is intended to recover money that rightfully belongs to the hospitals and ensure resources are directed toward patient care.
The dispute follows an earlier court fight in which new management accused Sarian of attempting to regain control of hospital bank accounts after he was removed as chief executive.
The hospitals at the center of the battle were acquired in 2024 out of the bankruptcy of Steward Health Care, the once-sprawling hospital chain whose collapse triggered one of the largest healthcare restructurings in recent years.
The Post has sought comment from Sarian and Gill.

Over the last year, Lauren Sánchez Bezos has become a key player in determining which organizations and causes get donations from Jeff Bezos’ $10 billion climate change fund.
According to Fortune, Sánchez Bezos has served as the vice chair of the Bezos Earth Fund since its early days in 2020, when she was the girlfriend of the Amazon multi-billionaire.
The fund, the largest contribution any individual has ever made to the environment, according to Northeastern University, is obligated to deploy all $10 billion by the end of the decade. So far, it has cut checks toward 335 grants, totaling $2.4 billion, according to the fund’s website.
Since Sánchez Bezos married her now-husband last year in a star-studded affair in Venice, she has become a more public-facing leader of the fund, often announcing new donations.
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In September 2025, she touted that the fund had disbursed $37.5 million in grants to protect 835,000 square miles of water surrounding a dozen nations in the Pacific Ocean. The initial amount was part of the fund’s $100 million commitment to what she called “one of the boldest ocean conservation efforts ever attempted.”
“The Pacific isn’t just a beautiful backdrop, it’s a lifeline,” Sánchez Bezos said in a statement at the time. “Pacific Island nations and territories are setting the pace. We’re here to match that ambition and help turn it into protection at scale.”
In October, she announced $30 million in awards to 15 teams who won the fund’s “AI for Climate and Nature Grand Challenge.” Each team received $2 million to jump-start their use of artificial intelligence to solve problems such as biodiversity loss and food insecurity.
“AI can be a powerful ally to help make the world a better place,” said Sánchez Bezos. “These innovators, using AI, are showing us new possibilities by reimagining how we grow food, protect wildlife, and power our planet to make a true impact.”
Other than environmental causes, Sánchez Bezos said in December that she and her husband committed $102.5 million to organizations fighting homelessness across the United States. That money comes from the Bezos Day One Families Fund, which has so far donated more than $850 million to outfits in all 50 states, Washington D.C., Puerto Rico and Guam.
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The Day One Families Fund is a portion of the total $2 billion Bezos and his wife plan to donate to nonprofits that help homeless families obtain stable housing. There is also an initiative to build and operate tuition-free pre-schools in areas of the country that lack education options.
The couple also gave a $5 million grant, along with the Bezos Courage & Civility Award, to David Flink, the founder of the Neurodiversity Alliance.
The New York-based non-profit provides mentors to students with learning disabilities. Sánchez Bezos has said she unknowingly grew up with dyslexia and struggled in school for years, later being diagnosed with the condition when she was in college.
Despite the Bezoses’ charity, they have not donated nearly as much of their net worth as others who have similar levels of wealth. Most notably, the couple lags significantly behind MacKenzie Scott, the ex-wife of Bezos.
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According to Forbes, Scott has donated $26.4 billion over a period of seven years, representing a staggering 46% of her estimated $35.4 billion net worth. In 2025 alone, she was the most charitable person on Earth with $7.2 billion in donations.
Over his entire life, Bezos has given away $4.6 billion, which is less than 2% of his $266 billion net worth, per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Bezos has also not signed the Giving Pledge, an initiative launched in 2010 by Warren Buffett, Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates that urges billionaires to give the majority of their wealth away in their lifetimes.
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Scott has signed the pledge, but Bezos has not. He told CNN in 2022 that he intends to donate most of his money but said it was difficult to do that efficiently.
“It’s not easy. Building Amazon was not easy. It took a lot of hard work, a bunch of very smart teammates, hard-working teammates, and I’m finding — and I think Lauren is finding the same thing — that charity, philanthropy, is very similar,” he said in the CNN interview.

A basic burger ingredient now comes with a side of economic reality: a pound of standard ground beef increasingly costs more than an hour of work at the federal minimum wage. The average price of a pound of lean ground beef has hit $8.34, outpacing the nationwide wage floor of $7.25 that hasn’t moved since 2009, when ground beef was around $2.20 a pound, Money reports. The magazine’s review of seven major grocery chains found prices for 80/20 ground beef ranging from about $6.50 at Trader Joe’s and Aldi to nearly $9 per pound at Publix. Even the cheapest variety of ground beef now costs an average of more than $5.40 a pound, according to federal data released Friday.
Earlier this year, the USDA said the US beef cow herd is at its smallest since 1951 after drought forced producers to reduce numbers by selling cows earlier than planned. “Fewer cattle mean less beef, and when supply tightens while demand holds firm, prices rise,” University of Wisconsin-River Falls agricultural economics professor Brenda Boetel tells the Detroit News. She doesn’t see prices coming down any time soon. “If a producer keeps a heifer today, it can be two to three years before her calf enters the beef supply,” Boetel says. “There’s no way to fix a shortage like this quickly.”
The New World screwworm outbreak, which Democratic lawmakers blame on the Trump administration’s cuts to USDA, is threatening to push prices even higher, Politico reports. Money notes that ground beef overtaking the minimum wage is a “largely symbolic development,” since only a small share of workers actually earn that amount and most states have higher minimum wages, but it underscores how far that pay level stretches in an era when grocery costs are up more than 30% since 2020 and likely to keep rising.
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The Kona EV is making a comeback, but it will look much different this time with Hyundai’s new design and latest infotainment setup.
The Hyundai Kona EV is due for an overhaul
Instead of a mid-cycle refresh, Hyundai will launch an entirely new Kona, and we are already getting a closer look at it.
It’s been nearly three and a half years since Hyundai introduced the second-generation Kona, debuting a new “EV-led” design that has since become a signature.
As it does with most of its models, Hyundai was expected to give the Kona a mid-cycle refresh ahead of the third generation. Apparently, that won’t be the case.
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Disguised Kona test vehicles have recently been captured testing in the US, Europe, and South Korea, with a completely new style.
We got our first look at an early-stage prototype spotted in Korea earlier this year (see the video at the bottom) that appeared to sit much higher and had a more angular design than the current Kona.
More recently, a camouflaged Kona was caught driving in the US. You can clearly see in the image from KindelAuto that the test car has a much wider, boxier look than the current Kona. It’s expected to adopt a similar design to the new Sante Fe, Pallisade, and Tucson.
It almost looks like the Crater Concept, Hyundai’s rugged off-road SUV from the LA Auto Show in November.
Hyundai said the SUV showcased “the next evolution” of its Extreme Rugged Terrain (XRT) vehicles, like the IONIQ 5 XRT. Is the Kona next in line?
The next-gen Kona was also spotted during a tow test in Europe this week, featuring a similar boxy design.
While it has yet to be confirmed, the new Kona appears to be equipped with Hyundai’s new Pleos Connect infotainment system.
The system is similar to using a smartphone, with apps, custom screens, and an AI companion, among other features.
The new Hyundai Kona could make its official debut by the end of 2026 with an official launch in 2027 as a 2028 model year. Like the current Kona, the third-generation model is expected to be available with pure electric, hybrid, and gas-powered powertrain options.

A major meat supplier is shuttering two US plant locations, and experts say it’s bad news for carnivores.
JBS USA, a meat-processing company that supplies Costco and BJ’s, as well as grocers such as Food Lion, Weis Markets, WinCo, and Stop & Shop, announced this week that it is closing its operations in Philadelphia and Memphis, eliminating a total of 2,000 jobs.
“These decisions are never easy because they directly affect our team members and the communities where we operate,” said Wesley Batista Filho, CEO of JBS USA.
“We are deeply grateful to the team members at these facilities for their efforts and contributions over many years. Our focus right now is on supporting them with transparency, respect, and access to new opportunities wherever possible.”
According to JBS, which packages, processes, and prepares meat in 15 countries, the shuttered beef plants will be absorbed into other operations.
Earlier this year, JBS announced it was consolidating its beef and case-ready businesses to improve efficiency and enhance productivity.
JBS controls about 20 percent of the slaughtering capacity for US cattle and hogs, according to industry estimates.
Along with Tyson, Cargill, and National Beef, JBS processes about 85% of the nation’s grain-fed cattle.
Although the herd has shrunk to a 75-year low amid record drought levels and higher production costs.
It remains to be seen how the JBS closures will impact the price or plentitude of beef.
The closures come as beef prices continue to rise. However, paying a premium has yet to lessen American appetites for beef.
According to US Department of Agriculture data, the average price of beef climbed from about $8.70 per pound in March 2025 to $10.08 a year later, an increase of roughly 16%.
Even so, demand has held up. In 2025, shoppers spent more than $45 billion on beef, buying more than 6.2 billion pounds, according to data from Beef Research, a contractor for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association.
Spending jumped about 12% from a year earlier, while the amount of beef sold rose more than 4% — a sign consumers aren’t just paying more, they’re buying more.
Despite consistent consumer demand, JBS has been battling losses.
In the first quarter of 2026, the company reported a net loss of $279 million, compared with a $158 million loss in the first quarter of 2025.
Experts maintain that the closure of the two US plants will leave consumers with fewer options for beef purchases.
JBS underscored that these forthcoming closures are integral to a “broader strategy focused on growth, modernization, and long-term competitiveness in the United States.”
In the poultry game, JBS-owned Pilgrim Pride announced it would transition some of its chicken production from Chattanooga, Tennessee, to Ellijay, Georgia, where it plans to invest $75 million into an existing location.
Investment notwithstanding, 348 Pilgrim Pride employees are expected to lose their jobs.
Representatives clucked that a portion of the investment money will be directed toward the production of boneless chicken products.
“We must ensure our operations are efficient, modern, and positioned to compete,” said Filho.
“By investing where we are growing and making difficult adjustments where needed, we are building a stronger and more resilient company,” he added.