For Bob Dean, 2021 was the year to cash in.
He’d fueled a lavish lifestyle for years through some of the most poorly rated nursing homes in Louisiana, and now Dean was in line to seal a $70 million sale of his remaining seven homes.
But the sale – like some of Dean’s patients – became a casualty of Hurricane Ida.
After watching 843 of his residents suffer following their evacuation to an ill-equipped warehouse without enough toilets, showers or air conditioning, state health officials shut it down and began moving patients elsewhere.
Dean acted quickly to salvage what he could of his crumbling empire, ordering that his nursing home bank accounts be swept clean of millions of dollars.
While his residents and their relatives spoke out about losing loved ones and recounted the horrors of the warehouse, Dean went on a spending spree of nearly $2 million for firearms, antiques, a luxury car, paydays for family members and more.
Those allegations figure prominently in a lawsuit the U.S. Department of Justice filed last week that says Dean misspent $4 million in money earmarked for four of his nursing homes with federally insured loans.
In the years before the storm, the lawsuit says, Dean simply pocketed more than $1 million that his nursing homes had paid in “rent” for the warehouse, instead of using it to prepare for an influx of elderly and disabled residents.
Under the conditions of the loans, Dean was to spend any assets and income from his nursing homes on improvements to...
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