Case # 15HF0303
Date: April 30, 2015
PHYSICIAN CHARGED FOR EMBEZZLING $220,000 IN DONATIONS FROM HOSPITAL FUND FOR CHARITY FOUNDATION
NEWPORT BEACH – A physician was arraigned today for embezzling $220,000 from a hospital fund that was designated for donations for a charitable foundation to the Hoag Hospital Donation and tax evasion by willfully failing to file personal and business state income tax returns. Bruce Allan Hagadorn, 56, Newport Beach, is charged with one felony count of embezzlement by fiduciary of trust and eight felony counts of willful failure to file tax return, with sentencing enhancements for aggravated white collar crime and property loss. If convicted, Hagadorn faces a maximum sentence of 10 years and four months in state prison. He is out of custody on $200,000 bail and was arraigned today. He is scheduled for pre-trial on May 28, 2015, at 8:30 a.m. in Department H-1, Harbor Justice Center, Newport Beach.
At the time of the crime, Hagadorn was the Chief of Staff at Irvine Regional Hospital and served as a board member of the Medical Executive Committee.
Between January 2009 and December 2010, Hagadorn is accused of misappropriating $220,000 from the medical staff account at Irvine Regional Hospital that the hospital physicians established and funded as a non-profit charitable organization. Prior to the hospital’s closure in January 2009, the Medical Executive Committee members voted to donate the funds remaining in the account to the Hoag Hospital Foundation and assigned Hagadorn with coordinating the donation.
Prior to donating any funds to the Hoag Foundation, the defendant is accused of writing numerous checks from the account, paying himself in cash, and depositing the money into his personal medical practice, Canyon Pacific OB/GYN, in Irvine.
Hagadorn is accused of willfully failing to file personal state income tax returns from 2008 to 2010, and his business income tax returns for his practice from 2009 to 2013. He is accused of knowingly failing to file his tax returns in order to avoid personal and business income taxes.
The State of California Franchise Tax Board (FTB) criminal investigation program identifies and investigates cases of tax evasion and tax fraud to encourage compliance with California income tax laws and maintain the public trust.
This case was investigated by the Irvine Police Department and FTB.
Deputy District Attorney Chuck Lawhorn of the Major Fraud Unit is prosecuting this case.