The United States has filed a complaint under the National Housing Act of 1934 (NHA) against Bob Dean Jr. and several affiliated corporate entities for misappropriating and misusing the assets and income of four nursing homes in Louisiana before and after Hurricane Ida’s landfall in August 2021. The United States’ complaint, filed in US District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana, alleges that, from 2016 to 2021, Dean required the nursing homes to pay “rent” on an industrial warehouse he had acquired supposedly to serve as a hurricane evacuation center. The rent, which totaled more than $1 million, was paid to one of his corporate entities. Rather than using the funds to prepare the warehouse for a hurricane, he funneled much of that money to his personal bank accounts.
In the days leading up to Hurricane Ida’s expected landfall in August 2021, Dean evacuated the residents of the four nursing homes to the warehouse. After residents arrived, sanitation was not maintained, and the nursing homes’ staff did not prepare sufficient food, provide wound care, or ensure adequate medical care and support for the residents. As a result, on Sept. 2, 2021, the Louisiana Department of Health removed the residents from the evacuation center and revoked Dean’s nursing home licenses.
The complaint further alleges that after the residents had been evacuated and the licenses revoked, Dean and his corporate entities continued to misdirect and misspend the nursing homes’ assets and income. Specifically, Dean directed his bookkeeper to sweep all of the nursing homes’ bank accounts and transfer the millions of dollars of funds to his personal accounts. The United States alleges that Dean did not use these funds to operate or maintain the nursing homes, which at this point were not operating because of the hurricane, and instead used this money to purchase personal goods and services, including antiques, firearms, and cars, and to fund allowances for his family members. The complaint alleges that, in total, Dean misspent and misallocated more than $4 million of the nursing homes’ assets and income.
