Friday, July 9, 2010

"It takes two to tango"

From the NY Post:

The state Health Department last month asked Attorney General Andrew Cuomo to investigate MediSys Health Network -- which operates Jamaica Hospital in Queens and Brookdale Hospital in Brooklyn, among others.

According to a source familiar with the history of the Health Department's inquiry, Cuomo's probe will stay clear of MediSys' entanglements with Seminerio (which remain the US attorney's domain) -- but will rather look at accusations of breach of responsibility by the hospitals' boards.

We wouldn't be surprised if they find ample wrongdoing.

After all, judging by court documents, the MediSys-Seminerio partnership just may encapsulate almost everything that's wrong with the way Albany functions.

According to a sentencing report submitted by US Attorney Preet Bharara last year, MediSys affiliates paid more than $390,000 since the late '90s to retain Seminerio's sham "consulting" firm, while the assemblyman remained vigilant in protecting the hospitals' interests.

A MediSys spokesman insists that Seminerio was hired only to lobby for the company on the city and federal levels.

But this strains credulity -- especially since wiretapped conversations caught Seminerio telling CEO David Rosen about all the muscle he's throwing around for MediSys in Albany.

That, MediSys claims, was done purely of the assemblyman's own initiative.

Right.

Indeed, the feds caught Seminerio on tape telling ex-Assemblyman Brian McLaughlin (who was also put away for corruption) that he got into the "consulting" business after watching folks in the health-care industry -- Rosen, specifically -- get rich off of state funds that he helped secure.

(Rosen, incidentally, took home a salary of $2.2 million in 2006.)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Typical greedy white male...arrest the usual suspects.

Anonymous said...

CEO, CFO, COO all the same -- all three made that number or more in salary -- hopefully the money isn't coming out of funds that are supposed to service those that need medical care in Queens...