Former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has been ordered to forfeit $5.1 million in earnings from his new book deal that was made during the coronavirus pandemic after the Joint Commission on Public Ethics voted 12-1 to the proposal.
The former official will have until next month to return the millions of dollars worth of earnings after the ethics panel concluded that he violated pledges not to use state resources or government staff to prepare the project. Commissioner David McNamara was the one who drafted the resolution.
Paying Back Profits
McNamara said that Cuomo now "lacked the legal authority to engage in outside activity and receive compensation in regard to the book." The ex-governo'rs book is titled "American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic" and was widely scrutinized when it was released in October 2020.
The criticism primarily attacked the book's claims that the Democratic governor was a major contributor to the sterling leadership amid the health crisis in New York. Cuomo apparently enjoyed the limelight at the beginning of the pandemic, having even United States President Joe Biden call his work the "gold standard" of leadership, Fox News reported.
However, in the following months since the book's release, Cuomo and his administration received criticism for the thousands of COVID-related deaths in the region's nursing homes. The former official was then accused of sexual harassment by several former staffers. Last August, Cuomo resigned in disgrace following a report from the state attorney general detailing his alleged sexual harassment of at least 11 women from 2013 to 2020.
New York Attorney General Leticia James was also looking into Cuomo's book deal with the help of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Brooklyn U.S. Attorney's Office. Many of the New Yorkers and lawmakers who had been open about Cuomo's controversy through his various scandals said the Tuesday decision was a step towards holding the ex-governor accountable.
Disgraced Former Governor
Additionally, the former governor's little brother, Chris Cuomo, has received widespread criticism when he was found to have assisted his older brother as an unofficial adviser, the New York Times reported. Chris apparently used his media influence in an attempt to get information about the accusers and even spied on investigative journalists' reports on the scandal.
McNamara added that Cuomo was legally entitled to retain compensation from his book deal or any other form of outside activity related to the book itself. The ethics panel found that the former governor's earnings from the book deal should be turned over to State Attorney General James.
Based on the decision, Cuomo had 30 days to comply with the resolution and pay the required amount to the attorney general. James would then be responsible for determining where the profits would be distributed.
The relationship between Cuomo's book deal and the nursing home deaths alleges that the former governor low-balled coronavirus-related nursing home deaths while negotiating the book deal. This has caused him to be accused of trying to look better to the public to profit more off of the health crisis, the New York Post reported.
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