New: Steward Health Care accused its founder and other former top officials of plundering the hospital chain of hundreds of millions of dollars in a scheme that directly led to the collapse of the once-high flying, Boston-born company.

🧵 In our recent investigation, we found that all too often the secrecy shrouding the use of confidential informants can serve as a cover for misconduct. So we made public records requests. Some of the state's police agencies failed to comply. Now the Globe has filed lawsuits.

We are live! Join the discussion here: www.reddit.com/r/massachuse...

What do you want to know about the financial collapse of Steward Health Care? Reporters from the Globe Spotlight Team will be talking about our investigative series tomorrow in a Reddit AMA. Join us: trib.al/83ICnxq

The @newyorker.com: "In 'Spotlight: Snitch City,' the Boston Globe skillfully reveals how police abused confidential informants in a Massachusetts port town," from @asarahlarson.bsky.social www.newyorker.com/culture/podc... @bostonglobe.com @globespotlight.bsky.social

"Like other outstanding podcasts that home in on local injustices, it raises our awareness of a wider systemic problem," the @newyorker.com critic wrote. If you have haven't downloaded our podcast series, you're missing out: apps.bostonglobe.com/metro/invest...

The latest rave review for the 'Snitch City' podcast is in. @newyorker.com says memorable interviewees put a human face on @globespotlight.bsky.social’s "stunning findings." www.newyorker.com/culture/podc...

Listen to our bonus episode of "Snitch City." This eight-year case first brought a Globe reporter to New Bedford, laying the groundwork for this very podcast on confidential informants. Finally, it's time to hear the outcome. link.chtbl.com/tTLbVzKf?sid...

The Globe's reporting on the crisis at Steward Health Care, with contributions from @occrp.org, has been named a @pulitzerprizes.bsky.social finalist for Public Service.

Two former New Bedford informants tell shocking stories in a new episode of "Snitch City.” Spotlight reporters Dugan Arnett and Andrew Ryan try to get answers and accountability. Listen here.

A new episode of “Snitch City,” an investigative podcast from @globespotlight.bsky.social, is out now. This is episode 5: All This For Nothing. trib.al/AUSQuaN

A new episode of "Snitch City," an investigative podcast from @globespotlight.bsky.social, tells the story of a police chief, a drug dealer, and the allegations that tie them together. Listen here. trib.al/PNGQwNA

A new episode of Snitch City, @globespotlight.bsky.social's investigative podcast on the misuse of confidential informants, is out now. It dives into one man's backstory and rise within the New Bedford Police Department: the police chief. Listen here. link.chtbl.com/tTLbVzKf?sid...

Last week, we published Snitch City, a series and podcast investigating misconduct on New Bedford's police force and its history of misuse of confidential informants. The city's mayor pushed back. And he's asked the FBI to examine the findings.

In Massachusetts, thousands of informants are at work. There’s no laws, and few guidelines to protect them, experts said. This is the story of broken promises from police that left one man in fear for his life. trib.al/E7KfOoh

New: ‘Whatever they said, I would do it.’ Inside the shrinking world of one confidential informant.

A star drug cop in Massachusetts manipulated confidential informants and fell under FBI scrutiny. Now he's the police chief. And under his watch, police have abused the informant system in almost every way imaginable. New from @globespotlight.bsky.social: trib.al/rMDxWr4

New @globespotlight.bsky.social investigation. Read: apps.bostonglobe.com/metro/invest... Listen: apps.bostonglobe.com/metro/invest... Stay tuned for more tomorrow.

New: The FBI investigated him for stealing from drug dealers and misusing informants. Now he’s the police chief.

Dozens of Massachusetts agencies have no policy governing the use of confidential informants, a fact that one criminal justice expert calls “insane.” It's a system that ignores the reality that cops sometimes lie. And they certainly have in Massachusetts. 🧵

A rogue cop, a mystery snitch, and a ‘drug rip.’ How ‘Officer Pills’ exploited policing’s informant system. apps.bostonglobe.com/metro/invest...

For years, people in New Bedford whispered about one cop. They had a nickname for him: "Officer Pastillas." Officer Pills. A new @globespotlight.bsky.social investigation details the secret world of informants. The story begins with him.

Our new podcast begins on the docks of a Massachusetts city. It involves a rogue cop. A demand for drugs. A phrase he'd used again and again: “confidential informant.” This secretive system in policing has a dark underside. We found it in New Bedford.

Coming soon from @globespotlight.bsky.social: Snitch City. This is the story of every American city enmeshed in the war on drugs. It’s about a deeply flawed system, the flawed people working within it, and the injustices that can occur when no one’s watching.

Latest from the @globespotlight.bsky.social series on Steward Health Care:

The damage from Steward’s financial meltdown is extensive. Several hospitals closed. More than 2,500 people lost jobs. Patients suffered. This is the story of community hospitals turned into profit centers. And how it all collapsed.

Steward Health Care was a promising hospital chain. What went wrong? A new @globespotlight.bsky.social story reveals a cautionary tale about the role of private equity in American health care and the corporate push for profits — often at the expense of patients.

Local news matters. From nearly the moment of Steward’s founding, Mass. officials failed to discipline it for regulatory violations, or respond forcefully to dire warnings as it spiraled toward financial collapse. A blockbuster investigation from @globespotlight.bsky.social:

Our new investigation begins with a death at a Steward hospital. It was followed quickly by a top state official calling with a request. It's just one of several examples of the often-accommodating relationship between Steward executives and state regulators. trib.al/4BMlHQb

Massachusetts’s elected officials and state regulators repeatedly failed to discipline, slow, or check Steward Health Care’s aggressive expansion and pursuit of profit. It came at the expense of patient care. Read the new Spotlight investigation.

New @globespotlight.bsky.social report out this morning looks at the accommodating relationship Massachusetts elected officials and regulators had with Steward Health Care.

Steward Health Care benefited from insufficient scrutiny from the Healey administration and other elected officials until the company foundered. Then it was too late. A new Globe Spotlight Team (@globespotlight.bsky.social) investigation details the state's failure to act.

New this morning from the @bostonglobe.com Spotlight Team's investigation into Steward Health Care: Company executives treated its in-house malpractice insurer like a piggy bank, depleting the accounts meant to pay malpractice claims apps.bostonglobe.com/metro/invest...

Steward Health Care executives used their in-house malpractice insurer like a piggy bank, pulling cash from it at will. Now some doctors wonder if they're unprotected. Some patients wonder if their claims will ever be paid. Read more from @globespotlight.bsky.social:

A tumor, missed in a scan. A baby deprived of oxygen. A ruptured artery. Some Steward patients suffered from alleged medical errors — some fatal — and have not seen settlement money. Meanwhile, executives used their malpractice insurer like a piggy bank.

From @globespotlight.bsky.social: Federal agents briefly detained former Steward Health Care CEO Ralph de la Torre early last week, served him with a search warrant, and seized his phone, according to three people briefed on the matter.