{"id":556128,"date":"2026-03-23T21:58:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T21:58:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/556128\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T21:58:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T21:58:13","slug":"the-trump-nominee-whose-company-is-suing-the-trump-administration-propublica","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/556128\/","title":{"rendered":"The Trump Nominee Whose Company Is Suing the Trump Administration \u2014 ProPublica"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

Last October, President Donald Trump nominated nursing home owner Benjamin Landa as his next ambassador to Hungary<\/a>, a key position that would place him in a country with a vigorous conservative movement. Trump has endorsed the country\u2019s prime minister, Viktor Orb\u00e1n, a long-standing ally, for reelection, saying he \u201cdoes an unbelievable job.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

One month after Landa\u2019s appointment, the inspector general of Trump\u2019s Department of Health and Human Services issued a blunt audit estimating<\/a> that a nursing home Landa co-owns<\/a> received Medicare overpayments of at least $31.2 million and recommending that the government recoup the money.<\/p>\n

Now that facility, Pinnacle Multicare Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, is suing the very administration<\/a> that is nominating Landa to the diplomatic post. The suit, filed Feb. 26 in federal district court in New York, asks the court to stop the government\u2019s collection efforts and names HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz, HHS Inspector General Thomas March Bell and a Medicare contractor as defendants. A federal district judge denied Pinnacle\u2019s request for a temporary restraining order<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As of March, Landa has an ownership interest in more than 100 nursing homes in eight states<\/a>, CMS data shows. Landa also is a donor to Republican causes, but his biggest donation by far was $5 million to MAGA Inc.<\/a>, a pro-Trump Super PAC, in August 2025, two months before his nomination.<\/p>\n

Critics of Landa\u2019s track record point to the audit\u2019s findings, along with other legal actions against homes connected to him, as reasons that his nomination should face additional scrutiny.<\/p>\n

Sen. Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat and ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, which oversees Medicare and Medicaid, described Landa as an example of \u201cgiant corporate health care interests that prey on the vulnerable and use clever tricks to exploit loopholes at taxpayers\u2019 expense.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s no surprise that these companies and their owners are cozy with Trump: instead of accountability, they\u2019ve been rewarded,\u201d Wyden said in a statement, with \u201cplum political appointments and ambassadorships in Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n

The White House and the Department of State did not respond to requests for comment about the status of Landa\u2019s nomination. An attorney for Landa denied wrongdoing in a statement, saying the issues identified in the audit occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic when nursing homes were in the midst of a crisis.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt Pinnacle MultiCare, patient care comes first \u2014 period, full stop,\u201d attorney Alyssa Friedman wrote in an email to ProPublica. \u201cThat commitment drove every decision during the pandemic and continues to define operations today.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s be clear: this is about decisive actions taken during the height of COVID-19 that prioritized patients and saved lives in one of the pandemic\u2019s epicenters \u2014 decisions now being second-guessed years later through an absurdly flawed audit of billing paperwork and a retroactive reinterpretation of the rules by government bureaucrats,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

The inspector general\u2019s audit and the resulting lawsuit are the latest controversy involving Landa.<\/p>\n

In November 2022, New York Attorney General Letitia James sued The Villages at Orleans Health and Rehabilitation Center<\/a>, as well as Landa and others she said were owners of the facility. A press release announcing the suit alleged<\/a> \u201cyears of financial fraud that resulted in significant resident neglect and harm.\u201d Between 2015 and 2022, Landa made at least $1.49 million from the facility, James\u2019 suit alleged, through means that James characterized as \u201clooting.\u201d Meanwhile, Landa \u201ccontributed nothing and failed to prevent the abuse and neglect,\u201d the suit alleged. James described a pattern of harm to residents at the home, due in part to what the suit said was \u201csystemic understaffing and cost cutting,\u201d which included potentially preventable deaths of residents due to delayed wound care and suicide.<\/p>\n

The home and the defendants named as owners have disputed the suit. In 2024, a state Supreme Court judge allowed multiple claims in the case to proceed; in 2025, Landa appealed that decision<\/a>. The case is ongoing.<\/p>\n

Landa\u2019s attorney said her client \u201cmerely owned a minority interest in the company that owned the real estate and served as the landlord of the building out of which the facility operated. He had no interest in the licensed operator of the facility and no involvement in the operations of the facility. The attorney general\u2019s claims against Mr. Landa are baseless and a waste of the court\u2019s time and taxpayer dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n

One month after filing the suit against The Villages, James sued Cold Spring Hills Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation<\/a>, based in Long Island, making nearly identical claims to her prior suit. Landa owned 25% of the facility\u2019s property holding company, according to the lawsuit<\/a>. Over a number of years, the facility paid over $15 million in rent to the property holding company co-owned by Landa; over $1.4 million to a management company co-owned by Landa; and almost $500,000 in consulting fees to a company owned by Landa, the lawsuit alleged. At the same time, residents were losing significant weight and developing malnutrition, enduring life-threatening pressure ulcers and repeatedly suffering unwitnessed falls, in part due to understaffing, James alleged.<\/p>\n

The home and its owners disputed the allegations. In March 2024, a judge in Long Island ordered four defendants, including Landa<\/a>, to pay a total of $2 million back to the nursing home, and ordered that an independent health care monitor be appointed to run the facility. Landa and his co-defendants have appealed various orders<\/a> in the case. In January 2025, Cold Spring Hills filed for bankruptcy<\/a>; in March 2025, the facility sold itself for $10<\/a> to a third-party receiver and changed its name. (\u201cOur facility is now under new ownership with a renewed vision for excellence,\u201d the nursing home\u2019s rebranded website<\/a> reads. \u201cA new chapter in compassionate care has begun.\u201d) The appeals and bankruptcy proceedings are ongoing.<\/p>\n

Landa\u2019s attorney said he was merely a landlord of Cold Spring Hills and was not involved in operating the facility. She noted that the judge found no fraud committed by Landa, that all business arrangements between Landa and the home were approved by the state health department, and that none of the defendants enriched themselves at the expense of patient care.<\/p>\n

Landa has been involved with other legal actions related to his nursing homes. In 2017, for example, an employment agency co-owned by Landa was sued on behalf of a class of Filipino nurses alleging that it had trafficked them<\/a>, withheld wages, and threatened civil and criminal litigation should the nurses leave. In September 2019, a New York district court found the agency and its owners had violated the Trafficking Victims Protection Act<\/a>; in April 2022, the case was settled for $3 million<\/a> on the condition that the findings involving trafficking were vacated. Landa\u2019s attorney did not respond to follow-up questions about the other suits in which he has been involved.<\/p>\n

In one of her 2022 lawsuits, James estimated Landa\u2019s net worth<\/a> at more than $300 million in 2016.<\/p>\n

The audit at the center of the current lawsuit was the government\u2019s first related to a new nursing home payment system rolled out during Trump\u2019s first term. Under the previous system, nursing homes were reimbursed based on the number of minutes of therapy provided to patients, which \u201ccreated financial incentives\u201d for them to focus on patients who needed therapy, according to the November audit report<\/a>. In contrast, the new payment system was designed to \u201cimprove payment accuracy and appropriateness by focusing on the enrollee, rather than volume of services provided,\u201d according to the report.<\/p>\n

The inspector general\u2019s office found that Pinnacle, located in the Bronx, received significantly higher reimbursements from Medicare under the new payment system than the old one, raising red flags at the agency.<\/p>\n

The inspector general found that Pinnacle had violated CMS billing requirements in 99 of the 100 claims it audited. The agency noted that, in 95 of those 99 claims, Pinnacle requested reimbursement for levels of services that were higher than what was justifiable when the agency reviewed patients\u2019 charts \u2014 for example, billing for speech therapy for aphasia in a patient who clinicians had explicitly stated did not need speech therapy. Additionally, in 54 of the 99 claims, the agency found, Pinnacle provided services that could not be justified by the patients\u2019 charts \u2014 for example, billing for \u201cbed mobility and wheelchair training\u201d for patients who were able to walk on their own.<\/p>\n

The HHS inspector general\u2019s office declined to comment on the audit, citing pending litigation.<\/p>\n

Separately, the New York State Department of Health has imposed three financial penalties <\/a>against Pinnacle since 2021.<\/p>\n

In its lawsuit<\/a>, Pinnacle alleges that the auditors \u201cblatantly ignore\u201d state and federal waivers for documentation and billing requirements issued as part of the effort to reduce administrative barriers to patient care during the COVID-19 public health emergency. \u201cPinnacle\u2019s efforts to provide exceptional care to its patients were an undeniable success,\u201d the facility wrote in the lawsuit.<\/p>\n

Additionally, the facility only had two COVID-19 deaths at the height of the pandemic \u2014 \u201cone of the lowest COVID related death totals among New York nursing homes despite being a 480-bed facility located in one of the most heavily affected areas,\u201d Landa\u2019s attorney said. \u201cThe outcomes during that period are the most important measure of care,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

In its suit, Pinnacle characterized the government\u2019s demand for repayment as an \u201cadministrative process riddled with constitutional violations.\u201d That request \u201cwould immediately paralyze Pinnacle by rendering it unable to pay its employees,\u201d the facility added, \u201cand would result in the shut down of the entire nursing facility \u2014 leaving highly vulnerable patients without life-saving care, depriving hundreds of individuals of jobs and income, and divesting New York City of this critical medical facility.\u201d<\/p>\n

Industry watchdogs say threatening closure in response to state or federal enforcement actions is a familiar ploy for nursing home owners.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s their constant refrain whenever they don\u2019t get what they want,\u201d said Kevin Walsh, former New Jersey comptroller who investigated tens of millions of dollars<\/a> in nursing home fraud during his tenure.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe risk of closure based on the finances and cost reports that I\u2019ve seen seems low,\u201d Walsh added. \u201cThey\u2019re not going to kill the golden goose they\u2019re using to siphon profits.\u201d<\/p>\n

Landa has repeatedly filed lawsuits in response to allegations against nursing homes with which he is affiliated. In 2022, he brought a suit for libel against The American Prospect, as well as one of its reporters and an editor, following an investigation titled \u201cThe Nursing Home Slumlord Manifesto.\u201d<\/a> Years earlier, he sued freelancers writing for ProPublica<\/a>, also alleging defamation. Judges dismissed both<\/a> cases<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Landa\u2019s nomination remains under consideration by the Senate Foreign Relations committee. (No hearing has been scheduled.) But if confirmed as ambassador to Hungary, Landa would hold a powerful position.<\/p>\n

Hungary, despite its small population and historically minor role in U.S. foreign policy, holds increasing symbolic importance in the global conservative movement.<\/p>\n

In a mid-February visit to Budapest, Trump administration officials reinforced their support for Orban. Secretary of State Marco Rubio signed an agreement to nurture Hungary\u2019s civilian nuclear program. (The country does not presently have nuclear weapons, according to the World Nuclear Association, an international organization that publishes reports on global nuclear activity.)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are entering this golden era of relations between our countries,\u201d Rubio said in a press conference<\/a> in Budapest, \u201cnot simply because of the alignment of our people, but because of the relationship that you have with the president of the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last October, President Donald Trump nominated nursing home owner Benjamin Landa as his next ambassador to Hungary, a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":556129,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[49,48,84,392],"class_list":["post-556128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-health","tag-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=556128"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556128\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/556129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=556128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=556128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=556128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}