FBI is investigating whether New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and his senior aides provided false nursing home data on resident deaths to the Justice Department, NY Times reported citing people aware of the investigation.
Cuomo got involved in a conflict over how many of the state’s nursing home residents died because of the COVID-19 virus. Also, an apparent attempt to keep the actual toll hidden.
FBI investigating Cuomo aides false data case
The investigation also focuses on how one of Cuomo’s biggest donors, the Greater New York Hospital Association, which represents hospital systems and nursing home operators — said it “drafted and aggressively advocated for” the corporate immunity provision. Cuomo’s government secretly placed the action into his state’s budget as numerous people were dying from COVID-19 in New York nursing homes.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents have contacted lawyers for Mr. Cuomo’s aides. They took interviews from high-level officials from the state Health Department. Agents also ordered Cuomo’s office to provide documents related to the data leak last year, according to the relevant people.
“The interviews have included questions about information New York State submitted last year to the Justice Department, which had asked the state for data on Covid-19 cases and deaths in nursing homes, according to the people. False statements in such a submission could constitute a crime,” NY Times reported.
An investigation with subpoena energy
“The households have been ready for a whole year for any semblance of an investigation, a real, deep investigation into what occurred. We’ve been asking for an investigation with subpoena energy on the state degree, and the calls have fallen on deaf ears,” told Vivian R. Zayas whose mother died in April due to coronavirus in a nursing home on Lengthy Island.
Critics say that the immunity law removed a significant restraint to corporate wrongdoing. Also, the deceased people and their families were eventually deprived of their legal rights. The actual executive order of Cuomo protecting front-line health care workers from lawsuits was publicly reported. However, the governor’s particular budget language increasing immunity to hospital and nursing home organizations’ officials and board members did not get reported.
