Attorney General Cuomo continues to battle fraud in New York. From Capitol Confidential:

Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said today he is expanding his probe of the pension system to include all 37 of the BOCES organizations in the state.

That’s in addition to the hundreds of schools districts and thousands of local government entities that Cuomo wants information from on the benefits they provide to lawyers and other professionals who may not qualify as full-time employees. In the case of the five lawyers from the Girvin & Ferlazzo law firm cited by DiNapoli, all worked on a very part time basis, the comptroller found, but were each reported to the state as having worked the equivalent of a full year.

“We have reason to believe some BOCES may have unclean hands in this situation and that there may have been financial benefits for the BOCES to list professionals as employees instead of as independent consultants,” Cuomo said in a news release. “There appears to be a chronic fraud that has occurred across New York State for many years, and we will work until we get to the bottom of it.”

Cuomo said that in many cases, attorneys are showing up on multiple BOCES and school district payrolls, and at least some did no actual legal work.

This last line, “some did no actual legal work,” makes me happy we actually have an Attorney General position, and even happier that we have such a competent and dedicated one in New York. Here we have 47 million Americans without health insurance and yet we have attorneys, enforcers of the law, and they are bilking the system that is supposed to help the most vulnerable among us, the disabled, so that they can have health insurance? These are legal professionals who no doubt can either afford health insurance or already have it provided by their regular employer.

I’m still trying to understand what Cuomo meant when he said BOCES may have had a financial incentive to list independent consultants as employees. Anyone have a guess?Â

Related posts:

1. NYS Attorney General Cuomo visits you.
2. Attorney General Andrew Cuomo to investigate student loan scandal
3. Who Wants to be Attorney General?
4. AG Cuomo has company going after Bailout Bonuses
5. Cuomo files fraud charges againt Bank of America