--- title: "Samuel S. Lee: Prospect's chief executive and co-owner" language: en canonical: https://dossiertwist.com/dossiers/prospect-medical-holdings/people/samuel-lee/ as_of: 2026-10-15 keywords: ["Prospect Medical Holdings","Leonard Green & Partners","Samuel Lee","David Topper","Medical Properties Trust","Ivy Holdings","Chamber Inc.","Prospect CharterCARE","Crozer Health","Waterbury Hospital","Eastern Connecticut Health Network","Roger Williams Medical Center","Our Lady of Fatima Hospital","Chapter 11","sale-leaseback","dividend recapitalisation","Hospital Conversions Act","PHP Holdings","Astrana Health","NOR Healthcare Systems"] --- # Samuel S. Lee: Prospect's chief executive and co-owner - Also known as: Sam Lee · Sang-Bum Samuel Lee · Samuel Sang-Bum Lee · Sang Bum (Samuel) Lee **Question.** What roles did Samuel S. Lee hold at Prospect Medical Holdings, and which proceedings concern Lee? **Answer.** Samuel S. Lee co-founded Alta Healthcare System, sold it to PMH in 2007 and became PMH's chief executive and chairman in 2008. Lee rolled shares into the 2010 Leonard Green buyout, became co-owner of Prospect with the Topper family trust through Chamber Inc. in 2021, and is excluded from the bankruptcy plan's releases. PMH's Transaction Committee concluded that the debtors have viable claims over some of about $203.6 million transferred in 2018–2021, $199.4 million of which went to Lee and David Topper; that is not a court finding. ## From Alta to chief executive - Analysis: PMH's fiscal-2010 annual report describes Samuel S. Lee as a former general partner of Kline Hawkes & Co. who co-founded Alta Healthcare System, Inc. in 1998, after it bought seven hospitals from Paracelsus Healthcare Corporation. Lee and the David & Alexa Topper Family Trust owned Alta until PMH bought it in August 2007. For that interest Lee received, according to Lee's Schedule 13D, 943,568 PMH common shares (8.3%), 836,440 shares of Series B preferred stock and $25.6 million in cash; the preferred stock carried an 18% cumulative annual dividend and allowed its holders, voting as a class, to elect two PMH directors. Lee joined PMH's board on August 8, 2007, when Lee also became Alta's chief executive, became PMH's Chief Executive Officer on March 19, 2008 and its Chairman on May 14, 2008, and was an officer of all of PMH's direct and indirect subsidiaries. [src-001] [src-038] [src-045] - Analysis: PMH's 2010 merger proxy records that in the quarter ended September 30, 2008 Lee and David R. Topper each acquired 4,182,200 PMH shares at $5.00 a share. In May 2010, as a director, more-than-10% owner and chief executive, Lee reported selling PMH shares at $7.00 to $7.11 under a Rule 10b5-1 trading plan, after which Lee directly held 4,976,040 shares. In the December 2010 buyout Lee was one of the rollover investors, with Mike Heather, Topper and Dr. Jeereddi Prasad, who together contributed 6,227,824 PMH shares to Ivy Holdings for 529,365 Ivy Holdings shares. Afterwards the management stockholders designated Lee and Prasad as two of PMH's five directors. Lee also signed, as chief executive of Prospect Green Management, LLC, its management services agreement with Leonard Green & Partners; Ivy Holdings and Ivy Intermediate Holding unconditionally guaranteed the subsidiary's obligations to Leonard Green. [src-032] [src-104] [src-001] [src-095] ## Owner through Ivy Holdings and Chamber - Analysis: PMH's fiscal-2010 annual report lists Lee with 20.2% of Ivy Holdings after the merger, and the Rhode Island Department of Health recorded 19.51% before the 2021 transaction. In that transaction Chamber Inc., incorporated in September 2019 and owned by Lee and the David & Alexa Topper Family Trust, became Ivy Holdings' sole owner, with Lee approved at 66.67% and the trust at 33.33%; the department's 2024 decision notes that the 2024 application reported 50% each and that it was unclear when the change occurred. In the 2020 application Lee was chief executive of Chamber, Ivy Holdings, Ivy Intermediate Holding, PMH, Prospect East Holdings and Prospect East Hospital Advisory Services. At the January 2025 petition date Lee was one of PMH's six directors, and signed the bankruptcy resolutions of Prospect Waterbury, Inc. (with Topper) and of Hospital Advisory Services, Inc. (alone) as their board. [src-001] [src-037] [src-003] [src-010] [src-002] [src-050] ## Reported payouts and preserved claims - Analysis: Several accounts attribute large payments to Lee; none is an audited or adjudicated figure. The Connecticut Attorney General's draft complaint states that $90 million of the $457 million 2018 dividend went to Lee, and a December 2023 letter from the Senate Budget Committee's chair and ranking member, citing CBS News, says PMH's head made about $90 million from the debt-funded dividend; Lee's response to these figures was not found in the retained records. A 2020 investigative report estimated that $128 million of the $645 million of dividends paid after 2010 went to Lee and $94 million to Topper, with about $386 million to Leonard Green investors and the firm; these are journalists' estimates. Leonard Green and Prospect told that report, in written statements through a jointly retained public-relations firm, that they had kept their commitments, abided by the law, provided good patient care and invested hundreds of millions of dollars, saving many failing hospitals and preserving thousands of jobs; for a 2026 follow-up Lee could not be reached for comment, Leonard Green declined to respond and Topper answered “no comment”. [src-081] [src-005] [src-094] [src-089] - Analysis: In the bankruptcy, Transaction Committee chair Jeremy Rosenthal stated in December 2025 that $199.4 million of about $203.6 million that PMH transferred in 2018–2021 to certain current directors and officers or entities they control went to Topper and Lee, and that the debtors have viable claims relating to some of these transfers; this is the committee's conclusion, not a court finding, and no judgment appears in the retained records. Lee is therefore on the plan's Non-Released Parties Schedule, with Topper, the Topper family trust, Leonard Green and its funds and others; the exclusion preserves possible estate claims without finding liability. Leonard Green and its affiliates did not respond to a December 2025 request for comment on the designation. A December 2025 newspaper report states that at a hearing that month Judge Stacey Jernigan noted that Leonard Green, Lee and Topper had been named non-released parties, and that an attorney for the trust managing Prospect's assets said people would have causes of action brought and the trust would work to bring as much money back in when the time was right; no such suit appears in the retained records. [src-068] [src-093] [src-096] ## Proceedings naming Lee - Analysis: Lee is a named defendant in the Pennsylvania Attorney General's October 28, 2024 suit over Crozer Health, which, as described by PMH's chief restructuring officer, alleges mismanagement and neglect and breaches of the purchase agreement; the defendants' answer is not retained. The case was removed to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on October 31, 2024; Leonard Green and, on November 25, 2024, Lee and Topper filed notices consenting to removal, and the Attorney General moved to remand. The retained docket, last retrieved on December 16, 2024, shows no merits ruling, and a January 31, 2025 motion for approval of a bankruptcy settlement among the debtors, the Attorney General, Lee and Topper was withdrawn by the debtors before April 21, 2025. [src-002] [src-069] [src-080] - Analysis: The Connecticut Attorney General's draft complaint, citing press reports, states that in September 2019 California's attorney general charged PMH executives including Lee, Southern California Hospital at Culver City and its supervising pharmacists with gross negligence over sterile compounding, after about 21,000 doses of “adulterated dangerous drugs” were dispensed, and sought to revoke or suspend the hospital's pharmacy permit. These are allegations repeated from press reports; the California accusation and its outcome are not in the retained records. A 2020 investigative report states that Prospect said no patient harm occurred from the error, which had been corrected, and that the pharmacy was fully operational, and described the matter as still pending; no later outcome appears in the retained records. A September 29, 2025 FTC early-termination notice for the sale of the California hospital companies names Sang Bum (Samuel) Lee as the acquired party, which under the FTC's listing format is the ultimate parent entity of the companies sold; the notice does not describe ownership percentages. [src-081] [src-094] [src-049] ## Sources - [src-001] Prospect Medical Holdings, Inc. Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2010, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (EDGAR) - [src-038] Schedule 13D filed by Samuel S. Lee regarding Prospect Medical Holdings, Inc. (2007), U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (EDGAR), 2007 - [src-045] FTC early termination notice 20071528: Prospect Medical Holdings, Inc. / David & Alexa Topper Family Trust, U.S. Federal Trade Commission, 2007-06-15 - [src-032] Prospect Medical Holdings, Inc. definitive merger proxy statement (Schedule 14A, 2010), U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (EDGAR), 2010-11 - [src-104] Form 4 statement of changes in beneficial ownership filed by Samuel S. Lee (May 2010), U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (EDGAR), 2010-05 - [src-095] Company statement source · src-095 - [src-037] Court record source · src-037 - [src-003] Rhode Island Attorney General decision on the Chamber Inc. / Ivy Holdings Inc. Hospital Conversions Act application, Office of the Rhode Island Attorney General, 2021-06-01 - [src-010] Chamber Inc. and Ivy Holdings Inc. Hospital Conversions Act application (resubmitted March 18, 2020), Office of the Rhode Island Attorney General (applicant filing), 2020-03-18 - [src-002] Court record source · src-002 - [src-050] Court record source · src-050 - [src-081] Connecticut Office of the Attorney General proof of claim no. 2592 with draft complaint, State of Connecticut, Office of the Attorney General, 2025-07-09 - [src-005] Letter of the chair and ranking member of the U.S. Senate Budget Committee to Leonard Green & Partners, Prospect Medical Holdings and Medical Properties Trust, Office of Senator Chuck Grassley, U.S. Senate, 2023-12-06 - [src-094] Media source · src-094 - [src-089] Media source · src-089 - [src-068] Court record source · src-068 - [src-093] Court record source · src-093 - [src-096] Media source · src-096 - [src-069] Court record source · src-069 - [src-080] Court record source · src-080 - [src-049] FTC early termination notice 20251865: Mike Sarian / Sang Bum (Samuel) Lee, U.S. Federal Trade Commission, 2025-09-29