During the heart of the pandemic, New York governor Andrew Cuomo wrote a book about how great he is. American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic is the story “of how he took charge in the fight against COVID-19 as New York became the epicenter of the pandemic, offering hard-won lessons in leadership and his vision for the path forward,” according to the official description. Since that unearned act of hubris, Cuomo has been accused of deliberately miscalculating the number of nursing home residents who died of COVID-19; faced allegations of sexual harassment from multiple women, leading to his resignation as governor (although not before attempting to defend himself by sharing a montage of himself touching and kissing people); and his brother, Chris, was fired from CNN for digging up dirt on his brother’s accusers.
And now he has to return the money he made from his book.
Andrew M. Cuomo was ordered to turn over roughly $5.1 million in proceeds from his 2020 pandemic memoir within 30 days, after a state ethics board found that he had run afoul of state ethics laws. The board, the Joint Commission on Public Ethics, directed Mr. Cuomo on Tuesday to relinquish the money to the state attorney general’s office, and authorized the office to enforce the collection.
“It is ordered that by no later than 30 days from the date of this resolution, Gov. Cuomo pay over to the attorney general of the State of New York an amount equal to the compensation paid to him for his outside activities related to the book,” the resolution reads. It is not known where the money will be distributed, but as long as it doesn’t end up in a bank account for someone with the last name “Cuomo,” it’s an improvement.
(Via the New York Times)