Private equity firms: unaccountable accountability and anti-social behaviour

Abraham J. Briloff and Leonore A. Briloff

International Journal of Economics and Accounting, 2013, vol. 4, issue 1, 1-21

Abstract: The tale of Hospital Corporation of America (HCA) is a cautionary lesson concerning the exploits of private equity entities, who aided-and-abetted by insiders, reduced a healthy and vibrant corporation (HCA) into a crippled debt-laden basket-case. Perhaps, the best analogy is one of a vampire, whereby real assets were drained from HCA through a complex of charges for fees, taxes and other devices. This was not the usual fairytale of a turnaround of private equity firms' contribution to America's future, by making a failing firm into a more efficient enterprise. Rather, this is a case of taking a successful business and reducing it to a shadow of its former self.

Keywords: private equity firms; Hospital Corporation of America; HCA; deferred taxes; pooling of interests; fraud; accountability; anti-social behaviour; critical accounting. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
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