Lifespan ordered to pay $14.2M to Tufts Medical Center

A federal District Court judge has ordered the Lifespan hospital group to pay Tufts Medical Center $14.2 million for its misconduct a decade ago when Tufts was part of Lifespan. But the award is only a fraction of the $135 million Tufts had sought. According to a May 24 ruling by Judge Joseph N. Laplante, Providence-based Lifespan pushed the Boston hospital –– then known as the New England Medical Center — into a risky financial arrangement, without disclosing that its then-chief financial officer had a "close, longstanding personal relationship" with the Morgan Stanley broker who handled the transaction. The former Lifespan chief financial officer, David Lantto, and Jeff Seubel, the Morgan Stanley broker, had a professional relationship that "had developed into a friendship because of their mutual affinity for wine," the judge's ruling stated.