By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com
A heath care company has hired former FBI Director Louis Freeh to investigate financial wrongdoing in hopes of restoring investor confidence after its shares plummeted in December.
The value of the NMC Health Plc’s shares fell sharply after short seller Muddy Waters Capital laid out allegations of financial wrongdoing in a Dec. 17 report against the hospital operator.
The allegations, which the company originally called “unfounded, baseless and misleading,” suggested the company overpaid for its assets, understated debt, inflated cash balances and failed to properly disclose potential conflicts of interest, Bloomberg reports.
NMC created an independent committee to investigate the allegations last month.
“The committee chose Freeh Group to provide a completely independent, unbiased, comprehensive and transparent report that will address all of these allegations,” Jonathan Bomford, chairman of the committee, told Bloomberg.
Freeh, who also was a federal judge, led the FBI from 1993 to 2001. His company, Freeh Group International Solutions LLC, is a risk-management firm that includes accountants, former law enforcement officials, and compliance and security experts.
