In court Friday, a judge pointed out allegations that tens of millions of dollars in state loans had disappeared into a personal account were not true.
Reddy Rathnacker Patlola and Manoj Prasad co-own Resilience Healthcare which is the parent company of two now closed private safety net hospitals, Weiss Memorial and West Suburban.
West Suburban employed more than 700 people and served tens of thousands of patients a year before it closed without warning on March 25.
Attorneys for Patlola are asking a Cook County judge to oust Manoj Prasad as Resilience Healthcare CEO and replace him with a third party to try to reopen the hospital that they say owes millions in unpaid bills, property taxes, and rent.
Prasad's attorneys told the court Patlola has no standing to do so, and Prasad himself can fix issues with billing he claims forced the hospital to close.
"The hospital has been closed more than several months. A lot of the staff has had to get jobs. We're fighting. I'd like to see a receivership with a independent third party so they can make a determination what the community needs are, because that community is, again, being failed by not just the two owners, but also by the state," former West Suburban doctor, Dr. Vishnu Chundi, told the I-Team.
SEE ALSO: Lawsuit accuses shuttered hospital CEO of 'financial mismanagement,' 'misappropriating' state funds
Accusations from Patlola's attorneys that Prasad transferred tens of millions of dollars in state loans into a private account were not proven in court.
A "special master" was appointed to examine financial documents, finding the majority of the $35 million in state loans was used for hospital purposes.
However, Patlola's attorney claims $2.2-million dollars was found to be transferred from an account Prasad owned to one owned by his daughter.
The I-Team previously reported investigations by state authorities into Resilience Healthcare are underway.
Patlola's attorney told the court it's been nearly 10 months since Weiss Memorial closed and it is no closer to reopening, and its hospital licenses are set to expire in a matter of months. He said the same is true of West Suburban.
Community members and faith leaders held a news conference this week pleading for the state to step in to reopen the embattled hospital.
"We're all here today because this issue can no longer be ignored. For many in our community, this hospital was more than a medical facility. It was a lifeline," said Pastor Lajuan Whitfield, New Life Holiness Church.
The judge is expected to rule Monday on whether West Suburban stays under the control of its CEO Manoj Prasad. Though it is now closed, money is still coming in. Attorneys told the court West Suburban is still receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars a week for procedures that occurred before it shut down.