Officials at London Health Sciences Centre say a forensic audit of the hospital network’s finances by an external third party has uncovered an estimated $60 million in fraud.

In an update Wednesday, hospital supervisor David Musyj says through an investigation they identified fraudulent activity between 2013 and 2024, and alleges previous members of the executive team knew about the practices and failed to act.

The hospital network has now filed two lawsuits totalling $60 million, which implicated five former executive team members, a contractor, and several companies that were contracted to do work.

“The Fraudulent Scheme was a calculated, multi-year campaign of deceit and theft, deliberately engineered to misappropriate public funds for personal and unlawful gain,” the lawsuit alleges.

The lawsuit alleges that those involved submitted fraudulent documents to LHSC as part of a bidding and payment process and failed to declare a material conflict of interest. It goes on to say that those involved then awarded contracts to parties despite conflicts of interest and submitted inflated invoices for work that was never performed.

The lawsuit also points to three of the people involved owning at least 76 suspicious properties holding total over $28 million in value purchased during the period the alleged fraud occurred.

A statement of claim has been filed against Dipesh Patel, the previous vice-president of Facilities, Derek Lall, Paresh Soni, Nilesh Modi, Varsha Patel, and several named companies in the amount of $50 million.

Additionally, a second statement of claim has been filed against the hospital networks previous president and CEO, Dr. Jackie Schleifer Taylor, Bradley Campbell the former corporate hospital administrative executive, and Abhi Mukherjee, the previous corporate services executive/CFO, as well as the consultancy firm Corpus Sanchez International Consultancy Inc., for breach of fiduciary duties.

The hospital says Mukherjee, Schleifer Taylor and Campbell are no longer with the organization and were paid according to their employment contracts and legal agreements. However, given the alleged findings, it is pursuing repayment in the collective amount of $10 million.

The statement of claim alleges that the fraudulent activity was reported to Schleifer Taylor, Campbell and Mukherjee, and they failed to take action in their “fiduciary duties as executive leaders of the hospital by not informing LHSC’s internal auditor, external auditors, and Board of Directors.”

Musyj called the alleged frauds a “deeply disappointing moment.”

“It’s not who we are at LHSC and it’s not a reflection of our team,” he said.

Musyj says the financial audit is ongoing and that all findings have been handed over to the London Police Services as they continue their investigation.

London police posted on X in October 2024 that it had initiated a fraud investigation relating to past financial practices at LHSC.

At the time, LHSC wrote a post saying the police probe is “in response to concerns raised by London Health Sciences Centre.”

The hospital network’s financial mismanagement has been in the spotlight for quite some time, with a projected operating deficit of $150-million operating deficit expected for 2025.

In late September, LHSC’s entire board of directors resigned following public criticism over the hospital’s spending.

Musyj, who was appointed supervisor at LHSC in 2024 by the provincial government and acts as interim CEO, says other staff involved in the alleged misconduct are no longer employed at LHSC.

None of these allegations have been proven in court.

— With files from Global News’ Emily Passfield and Aaron D’Andrea