<\/p>\n
HSA Florida operates five hospitals in South Florida.<\/p>\n
Miami Herald staff<\/p>\n
Palmetto General and other South Florida hospitals are caught in the crosshairs of a legal showdown between two health executives that began earlier this year<\/a> and is getting messier.<\/p>\n Michael \u201cMike\u201d Sarian, the founder and former CEO of Healthcare Systems of America-Florida LLC, is facing another lawsuit related to alleged financial misconduct. This time, he\u2019s accused of pocketing at least $14 million from the struggling hospitals in Florida and elsewhere to pay for his \u201clavish lifestyle.\u201d<\/p>\n That includes wiring over $109,000 from Healthcare Systems of America\u2019s corporate account in 2025 to a Four Seasons hotel in Beverly Hills, California, for his son\u2019s baptism and recently forging or \u201ccaus[ing] someone to forge\u201d the signature of an employee to divert another $120,000, according to the lawsuit, which was filed in Miami-Dade Circuit Court earlier this month.<\/p>\n The filing includes a social media post of Sarian celebrating his son\u2019s baptism at the hotel and also a redacted bank document that lists a baptism as the reason for the money transfer out of the health system\u2019s corporate account, which served as the operational money pool for hospitals in Florida and other states.<\/p>\n Sarian has denied wrongdoing. He and his wife, Evelina, in a text message to the Miami Herald said that the baptism payment referenced in the lawsuit was authorized by in-house counsel \u201cas partial loan repayment to Mike,\u201d who had earlier transferred $659,100 from his personal account to cover payroll.<\/p>\n The division of Healthcare Systems of America that is suing Sarian \u2014 known as HSA Florida \u2014 operates 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. HSA Florida took over the operations from troubled Steward Health Care System in 2024 as part of a bankruptcy deal to thin debt.<\/p>\n Evelina Sarian, Sarian\u2019s wife, denied the allegations in a phone interview with the Herald on Wednesday. She described the lawsuit as a \u201cretaliation move\u201d by Faisal Gill, their former attorney and now the newly appointed CEO and chair of the Florida hospitals.<\/p>\n In April, Gill filed his own lawsuit against Sarian in Nevada. Gill has also replaced Sarian as CEO of NOR Healthcare Systems, which is registered in Nevada and operates hospitals in California. The Herald was unable to immediately obtain a copy of the lawsuit.<\/p>\n Gill previously served as the in-house counsel for Sarian\u2019s growing hospital empire and also as a family attorney for the Sarians. Now, the couple is suing him in California for \u201cbreaches of fiduciary duty and legal malpractice that have impacted patient care, hospital operations, doctors and nurses,\u201d Mike Sarian said in a text message.<\/p>\n \u201cHe is stealing my company that I own 100%,\u201d Sarian texted the Herald, referring to HSA Florida. \u201cHe is terrorizing my family and my employees and even top executives were in constant fear for their positions in the company.\u201d<\/p>\n Sarian, who has over 30 years of experience in the healthcare industry, says he is the founder and sole owner and shareholder of Healthcare Systems of America, which runs the five South Florida hospitals, along with hospitals in Texas and Louisiana. He was ousted earlier this year in what he previously described to the Herald as a \u201ccoup.\u201d He previously told the Herald that all financial misconduct allegations against him are unfounded and that he\u2019s in fear for his life and for his family\u2019s safety.<\/p>\n Gill is also denying any wrongdoing.<\/p>\n \u201cThe allegations made by Mike and Evelina Sarian are false, defamatory, and without merit. This lawsuit seeks to have Mr. Sarian return the funds he took, ensuring those resources are properly directed toward hospital operations and patient care,\u201d Gill said in a statement to the Herald through his attorney. \u201cWe have full confidence that the judicial system will resolve this matter based on the evidence presented in court. Our hospitals remain safe, fully operational, and unwavering in our commitment to providing high-quality healthcare every day.\u201d<\/p>\n The complicated web of accusations is laid out in a series of lawsuits filed in Florida, Nevada and California.<\/p>\n The allegations<\/p>\n The latest Miami-Dade suit against Sarian alleges that over $14 million in questionable transfers were recorded between September 2024, when HSA took over the Steward hospitals, through January 2026, shortly before Sarian was ousted and replaced as CEO of the Florida hospitals.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile the hospitals suffered, Sarian funneled money into his family trust account and threw lavish parties for his family at the hospitals\u2019 expense,\u201d the lawsuit alleges.<\/p>\n Sarian\u2019s alleged transfers \u201cdirectly contributed\u201d to the current shaky financial condition of the hospitals, including \u201cimpairing plaintiffs\u2019 ability to meet payroll, vendor, physician, service-provider, patient care, regulatory, and other operating obligations,\u201d the suit states.<\/p>\n Evelina Sarian rebuked the lawsuit\u2019s claims and told the Herald that Gill, whom she described as the family\u2019s attorney and longtime friend and trusted adviser, had \u201cset up traps\u201d for her husband because he \u201cwas planning all along to take over the company.\u201d That allegedly included altering corporate documents of NOR Healthcare, the California hospitals\u2019 operator, to include a clause that would transfer 10% of the company to Gill upon Sarian\u2019s death, according to court documents.<\/p>\n Gill denies those allegations.<\/p>\n Blame is also being thrown around for the financial distress the hospitals are in, including the ones in South Florida, which had languished under Steward Health while then-Steward CEO Dr. Ralph de la Torre lived a luxurious lifestyle<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Hospital employees had hoped HSA\u2019s 2024 takeover would be a new beginning. Instead, the recent lawsuit describes the hospitals remaining in a financial freefall, cutting services and struggling to buy supplies, pay providers, and keep up with taxes and other bills.<\/p>\n The Miami-Dade suit alleges that Sarian\u2019s \u201cscheme\u201d to divert HSA operational funds caused \u201cnearly significant damage\u201d across the health network, including \u201cjeopardiz[ing] patient safety.\u201d<\/p>\n Sarian previously told the Herald that he made money transfers across the health systems as internal \u201cloans\u201d to help each system cover payroll expenses as needed and that Gill, as the health network\u2019s attorney, was \u201csupposed to do the paperwork\u201d for it. He also said that he never took a salary from HSA and often used his own money to keep hospital operations afloat, including putting expenses on his personal American Express credit card.<\/p>\n The suit, which lists several examples of what it implies are unexplained money transfers, frames things differently. It alleges that Sarian\u2019s \u201cscheme\u201d began almost immediately, going as far back as to 2024, when the hospitals\u2019 landlord gave the health system over $16 million to \u201csupport the acquisition, transition and operation of certain facilities\u201d in the HSA network.<\/p>\n \u201cWithin one day after HSA received the funding, Sarian caused $1,280,000.00 to be transferred from the HSA corporate account structure to his personal accounts,\u201d the lawsuit alleges, claiming that Sarian has refused to give back the money and \u201chas not provided a complete accounting\u201d for all of the flagged transfers and what the money was used for.<\/p>\n The Sarians deny any misconduct and blame Gill for the hospitals\u2019 financial bleeding, claiming that he created sham corporations to siphon money out of the health systems.<\/p>\n \u201cAll of it, they are alleging without any proof,\u201d Evelina Sarian told the Herald.<\/p>\n In the separate California lawsuit she and her husband filed against Gill, they allege that he violated attorney-client privilege and used his position as their trusted attorney since 2021 to not just mislead them, but also to obtain privileged and confidential information that he later used for his own benefit.<\/p>\n The new lawsuits \u2014 the one filed in Miami-Dade by the hospital system against Sarian, and the one in California filed by the Sarians against Gill \u2014 come on the heels of a similar, but separate, court battle between Sarian and HSA Florida that\u2019s related to bank accounts associated with the South Florida hospitals and who the legitimate CEO is.<\/p>\n HSA Florida, under the leadership of Gill, sued Sarian<\/a> in March, accusing him of attempting to lock it out of bank accounts that were critical for payroll, patient care services and other hospital operations in Miami-Dade and Broward counties. Sarian, who has denied those allegations, had sued Gill and a company stakeholder a week earlier, accusing them of stealing his company.<\/p>\n That power struggle is still playing out in court after a settlement deal fell through, according to Evelina Sarian.<\/p>\n Michelle Marchante<\/a><\/p>\n Miami Herald<\/p>\n Michelle Marchante covers the pulse of healthcare in South Florida and also the City of Coral Gables. Before that, she covered the COVID-19 pandemic, hurricanes, crime, education, entertainment and other topics in South Florida for the Herald as a breaking news reporter. She recently won first place in the health reporting category in the 2025 Sunshine State Awards for her coverage of Steward Health\u2019s bankruptcy. An investigative series about the abrupt closure of a Miami heart transplant program led Michelle and her colleagues to be recognized as finalists in two 2024 Florida Sunshine State Award categories. She also won second place in the 73rd annual Green Eyeshade Awards for her consumer-focused healthcare stories and was part of the team of reporters who won a 2022 Pulitzer Prize for the Miami Herald\u2019s breaking news coverage of the Surfside building collapse. Michelle graduated with honors from Florida International University and was a 2025 National Press Foundation Covering Workplace Mental Health fellow and a 2020-2021 Poynter-Koch Media & Journalism fellow.\u00a0
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