The nation’s largest home health provider spent more than $2 million purchasing the home of one of its executives after claiming concern’s for the executive’s “personal safety,” records revealed on Tuesday.
Kentucky-based Kindred Healthcare Inc. purchased the Louisville, Kentucky, home of Stephen Farber, who was appointed executive vice president and chief financial officer of the company in early 2014. The company reportedly purchased the home in December 2015 with the approval of the governance committee after Farber and his family found themselves at the center of a dispute with real estate developer David Fenley, a former neighbor, local news outlet WDRB.com reported.
Fenley’s attorney, Dennis Murrell, disputes this claim.
“It’s bizarre behavior,” Murrell told WDRB.com. “I have represented a lot of public companies and never seen anything like this.”
Kindred revealed it paid $2,150,000 for the home after engaging a third-party appraiser to appraise the home’s value.
“The Nominating and Governance Committee approved this transaction following its review of the terms of the purchase and due to concerns for the personal safety of Mr. Farber and his family if they continued to reside in the residence,” a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) reads.
Farber paid $1.7 million for the home in March 2014—meaning the sale netted a $450,00 gain for the executive. However, Kindred also claimed in the SEC filing that it purchased the home $250,000 below its appraised value.
Kindred noted that it is currently in the process of reselling the property.
While the transaction was framed to be “fair, reasonable and within company policy,” the claim that the personal safety of Farber and his family was a major concern has come into question.
The dispute with Fenley was allegedly over the use of a shared driveway between the homes of the neighbors, though Murrell told WDRB that the Farbers were never in danger.
“David never threatened the Farbers in any shape or form,” Murrell told WDRB.
Fenley further disputes other claims by Kindred about Farber’s former residence, including $250,000 that had been paid to Farber for relocation costs associated with his new position and relocation to Louisville, Kentucky.
Fenley, who recently filed a lawsuit against Kindred for damage of his property after the company allegedly removed trees in preparation to install a separate driveway for Farber, claims that payment was actually used for renovations. The amount was disclosed in an SEC filing from November 2015.
Kindred Healthcare did not respond to media inquires from Home Health Care News as of press time.
Written by Amy Baxter
Companies featured in this article:
