Pennsylvania Ambulance Association Investigated

It looked like moving day at the Blue Bell home of Harvey S. Grossman, chief financial officer of the Plymouth Community Ambulance Association.

Out the front door came the dining room table and six chairs, two bookcases and leather living room recliners. But the movers were working for the police, and the police were staging a raid.

The Montgomery County District Attorney's Office seized Grossman's household items yesterday as part of an investigation into how the volunteer-run, nonprofit ambulance company has been spending money it raised from the public and earned from racing to thousands of ambulance calls each year.

Sources familiar with the investigation say law enforcement has tallied more than $1 million in questionable spending, including the cost of a luxury box at the Wachovia Center, two jet skis and visits to strip clubs.

The money allegedly came from the $8.5 million the ambulance company has collected from insurers, private donors and local governments since 2000 - including $200,000 from Plymouth Township taxpayers.

Three unpaid volunteers are at the center of the probe, according to court documents: Grossman, who also serves as treasurer; the association's president, Jeff Cohen, of Chester Springs, Chester County; and chief operations officer George Gilliano, also of Blue Bell.

After the investigation became public, the ambulance corps' board of directors suspended the three men and this month picked a new interim president, Montgomery County Sheriff John P. Durante. The probe was initially reported by the Norristown Times Herald.

Grossman, Cohen and Gilliano did not return repeated phone calls seeking comment over several days. Criminal defense attorneys representing all three men either declined to comment on the grand jury investigation or did not return phone calls.

So far, no charges have been filed. Montgomery County District Attorney Bruce L. Castor Jr. said the investigation could continue for months. If a crime is proven, the items seized could be sold and the proceeds returned to the ambulance company.

Plymouth is Montgomery County's largest ambulance corps. It responded to 9,500 calls in 2005. It covers seven municipalities - Plymouth, Norristown, East and West Norriton, Bridgeport, Whitpain and Worcester - and a portion of the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

Unlike Philadelphia, which hires and pays paramedics, most suburban communities depend on nonprofit corporations, with unpaid volunteers making up the boards of directors. Such nonprofit organizations run all but one of the region's ambulance services.

The Plymouth ambulance organization has grown rapidly in recent years, but not without controversy. Last July, five employees on the night shift were fired.

In November, Plymouth Township police received allegations that Grossman, Cohen and Gilliano were "taking and/or receiving large amounts" of ambulance company money without approval of the nonprofit's board of directors, according to a court document filed in connection with yesterday's raid.

The ambulance company's daily operations have not been affected by the investigation, Durante said.

"At no time has the public been at risk due to funds being allegedly misappropriated by three suspended officers of Plymouth Ambulance," Durante said.

According to the court paperwork, the association's federal tax returns, and interviews with people familiar with the investigation, a variety of expenditures are being examined.

They include:

Nearly $57,000 reported in the 2003 tax return as having been spent on "building improvements" on an empty lot in Norristown. The land, in the 200 block of East Main Street, was purchased in 2003 and was supposed to be the location of a new ambulance substation. But the site remains vacant. A sign on the property says, "Future home of Plymouth Ambulance."

A contract on a luxury box at the Wachovia Center, where members of the ambulance company enjoyed Flyers and Sixers games. The contract cost the company $70,000, according to a source familiar with the investigation.