Cuomo Continues Clean Up

Cuomo eyes doctors, lawyers, and more
The Albany Times Union by Jay Jochnowitz, State Editor - April 15, 2008

As we reported yesterday, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is indeed expanding his pension fund probe, announcing today that he’s sending out letters to more than 4,000 counties, villages, towns and special districts in the state, asking them about their employment arrangements with various professionals who may have improperly reaped public pension benefits. Cuomo also said he’s going back to school districts, where the probe started and focused on lawyers, to ask them about their deals with other kinds of professionals.

The investigation is looking into what Cuomo describes as “potentially fraudulent employment arrangements” that alllowed professionals to get into the state retirement system and reap public pensions. According to his news release, he’s looking specifically at “attorneys (including those working as labor relations specialists), physicians, engineers, architects, accountants, and auditors who were on payroll in their professional capacity and: a) were reported to the New York State Retirement System as a full-time employee and also had outside employment or business associations; or b) were reported to the New York State Retirement System as a full- or part-time employee while also being an employee of, or affiliated with, another firm, organization, or entity that had a contract, retainer, or other agreement for professional services with the local government or district in question.

If you’re wondering who’s going to go through all this: turns out Cuomo is using technology to help with the investigation. In a news release, he said he has set up a Web site for governments and school districts to respond to a questionnaire. The questionnaires are password protected.