The Ninth Targeted U.S. Attorney

Todd P. Graves is reported to be the ninth U.S. Attorney targeted for dismissal by Alberto Gonzales and the White House. Graves officially resigned March 24, 2006.

One possible connection between Graves and Carol Lam is they both persued Medicare fraud cases.

The Western District of Missouri US Attorney office under Todd P. Graves had been active in prosecuting Medicare fraud. Medical Supply Chain, Inc.'s civil antitrust suit against Texas based Novation LLC, Volunteer Hospital Association (VHA), University Health System Consortium (UHC) and Neoforma, Inc. alleges the companies formed a cartel and were involved in a scheme to monopolize hospital supplies to defraud Medicare through payments to administrators and kickbacks. The scheme resulted in almost all of Kansas City, Missouri St. Luke's hospital's one hundred million dollar supply budget being purchased through Novation LLC. St. Luke's merged with University of Kansas Hospital after Irene Cumming, CEO of the University of Kansas Hospital was given a job by University Health System Consortium (UHC) on March 19, 2007.

Novation LLC is owned by the Dallas-based Tenet Heathcare Corp. The parent company was forced to pay $10 million in a civil suit. The company inflated prices to drive up their profits.

US Attorneys Leonard Senerote, Michael Uhl and Michael Snipes were also investigating Novation LLC. None of them are no longer with the Justice Department.

Jeffrey Barbakow of Tenet is a 2004 Bush pioneer. To be bestowed that honor means Barbakow raised at least $6.6 million for the Bush/Cheney campaign.