Kathy Clown's hiring of Contractor Gadget Jr. has got herself in hot water

NY Post 

The son of a major Kathy Hochul donor was hired by her campaign right around the time his father hosted a fundraiser for the Democratic governor — and just weeks before the dad’s company scored what’s being called a “pay-to-play” deal to sell the state $637 million in overpriced COVID-19 tests.

James Tebele, 21, has a resume that starts with a 2016 summer internship at his dad Charlie’s New Jersey-based Digital Gadgets consumer technology company, which pivoted to selling masks, gowns, sanitizer, thermometers and at-home rapid tests during the pandemic.

Now a student at New York University’s Schack Institute of Real Estate, James Tebele began working for Hochul’s campaign as a finance intern in November — and appears to have risen up the ranks, or at least pay scale, of her campaign as his dad’s fundraising for the governor increased.

On Nov. 22, Charlie Tebele — whose family has donated over $300,000 to Hochul — spent $5,150 on food, decorations and servers for a Hochul fundraiser and his wife, Nancy Tebele, also donated $18,000 to the governor’s campaign that day, the Albany Times Union first reported earlier this month.

Just four days later, Hochul suspended competitive-bidding rules for the state’s purchase of COVID-19 supplies, leading to the first of two contracts awarded to Digital Gadgets for a total of 26 million test kits.

Despite the rapid confluence of events, and her campaign’s hiring of James Tebele, Hochul has maintained that she “was not aware that this was a company that had been supportive of me” — an assertion rejected and ridiculed by her critics.

“The governor attended an in-person fundraiser hosted by the donor and hired one of his family members, but claims she was unaware of any connection. It’s laughable,” Assembly Minority Leader Will Barclay (R-Fulton) said Wednesday.

The first contract — inked on Dec. 20 — charged taxpayers $13 per test, even though Hochul’s administration had recently struck a deal to buy similar tests from another supplier for just $5 each, according to the Times Union.

Digital Gadgets charged the state an average of $12.25 per test — costing taxpayers a total of $268 million more than if officials bought the “Carestart” tests directly from the manufacturer instead of using Charlie Tebele as a middleman, the Times Union said.

 NY Post

This is not the kind of national attention most governors seek.

Congressional Republicans are vowing to probe a $637 million alleged pay-to-play scheme involving Gov. Kathy Hochul and a deep-pocketed campaign donor if they retake the House of Representatives this November.

“As a taxpayer, it really pisses me off that my governor is paying twice as much for a product that other states are and that the money is going to one of her large donors,” Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-Staten Island-Brooklyn) told The Post Thursday.

“It smells so bad,” she added.

The vow comes amid growing calls for local, state and federal officials — who have remained silent about whether they will investigate — to probe how $300,000 in campaign cash to Hochul might have helped the New Jersey-based Digital Gadgets land the no-bid contract for 52 million COVID rapid tests, a deal first revealed by the Times Union this summer.

“With your duty to enforce federal laws and ensure fair and impartial administration of justice, we ask that you use your position within the Department of Justice to promote transparency in government spending and investigate this potential kickback scheme that has defrauded taxpayers millions of dollars,” reads a Sept. 26 letter to US Attorney General Merrick Garland from GOP members of Congress including Malliotakis and Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-North Country).

 

Governor Kathy Clown let pandemic profiteering donor gouge taxpayers for COVID-19 tests

  

Times Union

 Last December, Gov. Kathy Hochul’s administration received an offer to buy 26 million at-home coronavirus tests from a New Jersey-based distributor that happened to be a major campaign donor to the governor.

The price offered by Digital Gadgets founder and CEO Charlie Tebele was $13 per test, far steeper than what other companies were proposing for similar rapid antigen tests. Hochul’s administration had just approved a deal with another firm to buy 5 million tests for just $5 each.

Still, the Hochul administration quickly agreed to pay $338 million to Digital Gadgets at the higher per-test price. The state Division of Budget and Hochul’s office signed off on the deal on Dec. 20, the same day Tebele made the proposition.

Despite that tight timeline, Digital Gadgets contends the deal was "thoroughly negotiated."

The Times Union reported in July that Tebele and his family members have donated nearly $300,000 to Hochul’s campaign, including $70,000 before last winter. That's when Hochul's administration signed two purchase orders to buy $637 million in tests. Tebele subsequently hosted a campaign fundraiser for Hochul in April, records show.

While three other companies sold tests to the state Department of Health last winter for $7.80 each or less, Digital Gadgets charged an average of $12.25, according to records provided by the state comptroller's office.

Despite buying 52 million tests in bulk, the administration paid Digital Gadgets as much or more than consumers would pay in a retail store, according to Bill Hammond, senior fellow for health policy at the Empire Center for Public Policy.

Hammond reviewed the records obtained by the Times Union and was struck by the significantly higher price the administration paid Digital Gadgets, resulting in hundreds of millions in additional spending.

“The Hochul administration is saying it was not because they were a donor, but should answer the question of why they so eagerly got into business with this very high-priced vendor — and bought more than half their total amount from this one supplier — when they knew it was charging a much higher rate than they had been paying,” Hammond said.

Hochul has argued that Digital Gadgets was uniquely able to deliver a significant quantity of rapid tests before schools reopened in early January, a time when the highly contagious omicron variant was threatening to keep them closed. She's noted the state was getting "slammed" by the variant by mid-December. 

"I was not aware that this was a company that had been supportive of me," Hochul said during a July 20 press briefing, referring to the campaign donations. "I don't keep track of that. My team, they have no idea."

 "But the fact that there was someone who could meet that need at that time allowed us to deliver critically important test kits when nobody else — including the federal government — could get their hands on it," she said. "As a result, we got kids back in school in January, as opposed to sitting home another semester."

But as Hammond has written, the administration continued paying for significant quantities of Digital Gadgets tests after the omicron wave subsided. 

The $637 million in spending began on Dec. 30, and the Department of Health made 239 separate payments through March 25 to Tebele's company, paying for the tests as they were delivered. Sixty-two percent of the payments, or roughly $395 million, were made after COVID-19 hospitalization levels had returned to pre-spike levels in late February, according to Hammond. By that time, tests from other vendors were more available. 

According to Digital Gadgets, the bulk of the tests had been delivered by late February and the company was owed significantly more than $395 million at that point.

Though the state's purchase orders were signed in December and January, New York likely would have been able to stop making the purchases before spending the whole $637 million.

In March 2020, state Budget Director Robert Mujica issued a directive to all state agencies instructing them to include "into all COVID-19-related purchases" language reserving the right to terminate those orders with 30 days’ notice "for any reason." And for "medical equipment, personal protective equipment, or similar products and services," the state could terminate an order with only two days’ notice.

Agencies could seek an exemption, but there's no indication the health department sought one for the Digital Gadgets' orders.

The Department of Health declined to say whether it could have rescinded its deal with Digital Gadgets once the omicron variant waned, saying it does not comment on "legal hypotheticals."

de Blasio's Citywide Administration Services allowed contractors to swindle the city during the start of the pandemic by sending the wrong face masks

 THE CITY 

 Last spring, frontline medical workers scrambled in vain to find proper surgical masks as the coronavirus swept through hospitals across the city.

Doctors, nurses and medical technicians were forced to reuse the same mask over and over — a dangerously ineffective method to stem infection from a virus that’s now taken the lives of more than 24,000 New Yorkers.

City officials jumped into action, signing more than $1 billion in emergency no-bid contracts with seemingly anybody who claimed they could produce high-quality masks and other crucial COVID gear — including ventilators.

Among them: Genuine Parts Company, an Atlanta-based firm that specializes in auto parts. The Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS), which handles most of City Hall’s purchases, had bought parts for city vehicles from Genuine in the past.

An auto parts company from Atlanta?? Why? 

Go on...

According to internal records obtained by THE CITY, DCAS paid $348,000 for what was described by Genuine as 300,000 “non-Latex surgical masks” that were marked as “received” by the city on April 7. That was at the peak of the virus’ spread in New York City, when the seven-day average for daily hospitalizations hit 1,642, compared to this week’s 52.

 But records show that when DCAS’ Bureau of Quality Assurance inspected the delivered goods, workers discovered not surgical masks but “disposable single-use non-surgical mask/dust mask/Not FDA approved.”

The items were nevertheless deemed “accepted due to public necessity.” DCAS paid full price and placed subsequent orders for more masks from the car parts dealer, records show. DCAS then “redirected” the masks — useless in emergency rooms — elsewhere for non-medical use.

The Genuine mask purchase is part of a disturbing pattern uncovered during an investigation by THE CITY of DCAS’ pandemic-spurred emergency buying spree.

During some of the most dire weeks of the crisis, THE CITY found, the agency lost track of key equipment from masks to ventilators — driving an exasperated DCAS official to declare in one early May meeting: “Stop this s—t! Stop this s—t! Fix the problem!”

 And guess who also was involved in this honest incompetence graft? The Blaz's art dealer buddy Contractor Gadget

A similar scenario unfolded with another vendor, Digital Gadgets, an electronics firm whose CEO, Charlie Tebele, along with family members, has been a frequent donor to de Blasio’s various political campaigns.

In late March, DCAS awarded $19 million in no-bid contracts to Digital for high quality N95 masks and lower quality KN95 masks. That included an $8 million contract for what the firm promised would be two million “surgical grade N95s,” according to internal DCAS documents. 

 The company also won a $91 million contract to provide DCAS with ventilators that was later cancelled because, Benson told THE CITY, the agency “decided to order a different ventilator model.”

Digital Gadgets — which previously supplied hoverboards to QVC — did deliver masks. But DCAS records reveal that the agency’s Bureau of Quality Assurance discovered the masks Digital delivered were not “surgical grade N95s” as promised and had not been approved by either the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

Contractor Gadget loses city deal after botching ventilator and PPE deliveries

THE CITY

City Hall has canceled a $91 million emergency contract for ventilators and other medical equipment after the vendor failed to deliver the goods — even after receiving an initial $9.1 million payment in late March.

Meanwhile, Mayor Bill de Blasio appointed the company’s owner — a major donor to his failed presidential bid — to his small business advisory panel.

Digital Gadgets LLC, a New Jersey-based electronics wholesaler, supplied none of the 2,000 Aeonmed VG70 ventilators and 200,000 “breathing kits” agreed to under a March 30 deal with the Department of Citywide Administrative Services, according to an agency spokesperson.

“The city canceled this order because it decided to order a different ventilator model,” said the spokesperson, Nick Benson. “This was an amicable decision with the vendor.”

Digital Gadgets’s CEO is Charlie Tebele, who with family members made contributions totaling $32,000 to de Blasio’s now-abandoned campaign for the Democratic nomination for president and related political action committees, state and federal records show.

Tebele and family members also gave at least $12,750 to de Blasio’s 2017 reelection campaign.

As THE CITY reported last month, medical equipment was apparently a new line of business for Tebele, a wholesaler of hoverboards and other electronic devices to QVC and similar outlets, operating out of Monroe, N.J.

On May 6, de Blasio appointed Tebele to his 31-member Small Business Sector Advisory Council, formed to “provide guidance to shape the City’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic,” a statement from the mayor’s office said. Tebele’s appointment was first reported by the Daily News.

A spokesperson for the mayor’s office, Jane Meyer, told THE CITY: “Every single New Yorker has a stake in the city’s recovery. These bodies are purely advisory and participants were selected based on their expertise — nothing else. From the NAACP to the Catholic Church, Teamsters and Etsy —  we are proud to have New Yorkers from all backgrounds involved in this recovery effort.”

THE CITY attempted to reach Tebele by phone and email for comment, but did not make contact.

COVID-19's Contractor Gadget

THE CITY

City Hall’s frantic hunt for protective masks and medical equipment to combat coronavirus led officials to sign emergency contracts totaling nearly $119 million with a firm run by a major donor to Mayor Bill de Blasio’s failed presidential campaign.

Digital Gadgets LLC, a New Jersey-based wholesaler of hoverboards and other electronic devices to QVC and similar TV outlets, entered into three contracts with the Department of Citywide Administrative Services between March 25 and March 28, city contract records show.

The first payment of $9.1 million came the following Tuesday — representing 10% of a total $91 million agreed to for “procurement of respirators and breathing kits” through the end of June. One order of two million N95 masks comes at a price of $8 million, or $4 a mask.

The Digital Gadgets deal arrived in the midst of a bidding war among cities, states, and nations around the globe for personal protective gear and was well within range of prices on offer at the time.

Before March 25, Digital Gadgets had never appeared in the city comptroller’s decade-old CheckbookNYC tracking system.

Digital Gadgets’ website features a pop-up box: “If you are inquiring about our COVID-19 PPE please click on button below,” followed by an email address.

Company CEO Charlie Tebele and family members made donations totaling $32,000 to de Blasio’s now-abandoned campaign for the Democratic nomination for president and related political action committees, state and federal records show. Tebele and family members also contributed at least $12,750 to de Blasio’s 2017 reelection campaign.

Tebele, who owns a Manhattan townhouse residence on East 61st Street, and Digital Gadgets did not respond to multiple emails and phone calls from THE CITY.

de Blasio's an idiot savant. He may not know shit about preparing for a crisis and evidently leading a city during one, but his brain cells get energized the second an opportunity comes up to make sure anyone who gave him money immediately gets a cherry contract with the city.

Despicable