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It’s no coincidence that four people allegedly involved in a scandal surrounding the same hospital were appointed to various state boards by Gov. Mark R. Warner. Virginia, it appears, is the only state in the country where this has occurred – and seemingly, none of those involved cares enough to provide a response. Neither Gov. Mark R. Warner nor his offi ce has yet to respond to inquiries by Virginia Times concerning his appointment last year of Dr. Gopinath Jadhav to the state board of medicine.

Warner’s offi ce was initially contacted by fax in late December and since then, several times, both by fax and phone calls. One of the latest attempts to talk with Warner or his spokesperson occurred in late January when the governor’s press secretary, Ellen Qualls, said she would look over Times articles concern- famed him.

The governor was contacted because his appointment of Jadhav to the board of medicine, in effect, put the doctor in the position of being a state offi cial.

The Times was attempting to make Warner aware of the allegations surrounding his appointee, and to garner comment from the governor.

According to an eyewitness who asked to not be named, in addition to Jadhav, Warner has appointed several other doctors to the medical board who are tied in with scandals at SRMC.

They include another former hospital chief of staff, Ming Chiu; Kamalesh Dave, vice chief of staff; Sandy Gibson, treasurer of the hospital executive committee; and Nicholas Emiliani, a member of the executive committee.

“Ming Chiu was directly involved,” the source said. “In spite of everything, he knows it’s a confl ict of interest that went on and participated in hushing up scandals surrounding the peer review [previously written about in past Times reports].”

“He’s directly responsible. He knows there’s so much fraud going on and testifi ed in front of a committee that the hospital’s executive committee was involved in malfeasance,” said the eyewitness. “And they’re responsible for using the peer review for malicious intent.”

The executive committee consists of Thomas Ross; Kamalesh Dave; Nicholas Emiliani; David Cangcuesta; Ming Chiu; John Grizzard; Tracey Jones; Sandy Gibson; Frederick Ende; Cary Straton; Ahmed Shahab-Uddin; Eniola O k e l a n a ; Boyd Wickizer; Shirlene Moten; and Ann Barnwell- Greyson.

“They’re all fully aware of their actions,” said the eyewitness, in alluding to alleged misdoings of the executive committee.

“The malfeasance is depicted in their actions in the years 2002, 2003 and 2004.” The eyewitness contends that in essence, someone close to Warner is recommending these kinds of appointments and asks in retrospect, if the state of Virginia has bent so low as to allow this kind of thing to go on at the helm of public service.

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