NY Nepotism Creeps Into the State SUNY Universities

With all the press regarding the shady finances of SUNY’s Research Foundation, “artvoice” decided to check in on the status of who is actually running this shady and very secretive private research foundation that has access without accountability to hundreds of millions ($132 million) in public funding.

The group handled $132,000,000 in state funds for construction projects in Buffalo. As reported in The Great UB Heist:

Who are the directors of the Buffalo 2020 Development Corporation? James Weyhenmeyer, the chairman, is also vice president and managing director of the Technology Accelerator Fund at the SUNY Research Foundation. Satish Tripathi, the vice chairman, is the newly-named officer-in-charge of UB and soon to be president.

Buffalo 2020 Development Corporation board members are: David Dunn, vice president for Health Sciences at SUNY Buffalo; Scott Nostaja, who abruptly resigned as senior vice president and chief operations officer at SUNY Buffalo on March 23; John J. O’Connor, senior vice chancellor for Research and Innovation, secretary of SUNY, and president of the Research Foundation of SUNY; Edward P. Schneider, executive director of the UB Foundation; and former UB President John B. Simpson.

Since then, Scott Nostaja quit his job at UB and has resigned from the corporation. Under intense scrutiny, John O’Connor left his positions at SUNY and the SUNY Research Foundation and resigned from the corporation. John Simpson, who quit as UB President, retains his position in the corporation. So does David Dunn, who recently quit his job at UB to go to the University of Louisville. Current UB President Satish Tripathi also retains his position.

The group is supposed to have a meeting in July, but they contend they are not subject to the Open Meetings Law.

Read more: http://blogs.artvoice.com/avdaily/2011/06/24/buffalo-2020-development-corporation-in-flux/#ixzz1QIkXNtHv

Feds Probing Medicaid Fraud at SUNY Research Foundation

A federal criminal investigation into systemic fraud related to audits of New York's Medicaid program is targeting numerous supervisors and employees at the state Health Department and the Research Foundation for the State University of New York.

Interviews with people familiar with the matter and documents obtained by the Times Union show that in recent weeks at least seven employees with those agencies received letters from federal prosecutors in Albany notifying them they are targets in the investigation. The letters say evidence is being prepared for presentation to a federal grand jury for indictment in a case involving fraud, health care fraud, falsification of records and conspiracy.

The targeted employees were encouraged to contact prosecutors to discuss a pre-indictment settlement, and to consult attorneys if necessary. The letters were sent by assistant U.S. Attorney Sara Lord, who specializes in white-collar crime cases.

Federal investigators with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services are pursuing whether the scandal reaches into the upper levels of management for the SUNY Research Foundation and the state Health Department, according to sources briefed on the case. At stake is more than $22 billion in annual matching federal funds for Medicaid. The allegations are that Research Foundation workers, who were under contract with the state Health Department to audit the program, were pushed to manipulate data related to the percentage of ineligible people receiving benefits.

On Saturday, the Research Foundation issued a written statement that shifted focus to an arm of the Research Foundation in Buffalo. People briefed on the investigation said workers at the foundation's Albany headquarters are targets of the probe.

People familiar with the case said several Research Foundation workers have alleged they were fired or retaliated against after questioning the practice of altering data or manipulating information such as residency requirements of Medicaid recipients.


One such employee, Ava Dock, filed a civil complaint against the Research Foundation in U.S. District Court alleging that Research Foundation's ''purpose to underreport New York's error rate for Medicaid claims was to defraud the federal government ... in order to avoid the disallowance of federal matching funds for Medicaid to New York,''


The Research Foundation considers itself a private, not-for-profit agency though its leaders are mostly made up of top SUNY officials. The foundation handles about $1 billion annually in revenues, mostly in research grants from the federal government. Its workers also routinely conduct business on behalf of the state through government contracts, and many of its employees have state government jobs and state e-mail addresses.

This is not the first time NYS and SUNY Research Foundation Have Been Investigated for Fraud

http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Feds-probing-Medicaid-fraud-at-SUNY-firm-557890.php#page-2

Value of a College Degree is crashing faster than the housing market

Children in the U.S. are taught that a college education is the ticket to a good job. But the cost of a college education is rising, and the supposed benefits are more elusive than conventional wisdom would suppose. The National Inflation Association reveals the scam behind the myth of the college education.No wonder, then, that according to Time Magazine, a recent poll shows that:

“... a majority of Americans think colleges fail to deliver enough bang for their buck. Of 2,142 adults surveyed, 57 percent said the higher education system in the U.S. fails to provide students with good value for the money they and their families spend.

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/06/03/is-a-college-education-the-biggest-scam-in-us-history.aspx

Colleges only interested in lining their own pockets
1. Federal grant and loan programs allow college costs to be overinflated for the value being offered at Colleges
2. Textbooks is a kickback industry
3. College tutition has 5%+ price inflation even though the housing market is down over 20% and the dow is down 18%. College is the only thing in America except for healthcare that did not decline in price.
4. College costs over $100k and you are NOT guaranteed a job.

A senior in high school that invests $30k in i.e. silver would be able to buy a median priced home in 4 years. Whereas his contemporaries going to college will come out over $100k in debt and NO JOB.

Total cost of college:

$186,000 college degree
$61,000 interest paying college loans
$212,000 lost income
________________________________________

Total cost of college: $460,000

Disclaimer: the posted video is a commercial to buy gold and silver and National Institute of Inflation. We do

Public school, private dealings

As the State University of New York looks for more independence, it should be doing all it can to earn the public's trust. Instead, SUNY wraps itself in the cloak of secrecy that already shrouds the SUNY Research Foundation.

The university refuses to release a report on its relationship with the Research Foundation. So much for shedding some light on this rather covert entity that handles $1 billion in grants annually and has been tainted by corruption and patronage allegations for years. SUNY says the report is "privileged."

And therein lies the problem -- with a secret foundation, with SUNY's outrageous pay hikes and housing allowances for top administrators, with a possible no-show job for the daughter of a former Senate majority leader, with the suggestion that higher education is beyond scrutiny: The air of privilege that SUNY exudes is sometimes breathtaking.

The report, done by legal consultant Hogan Lovells US LLP, is on the "Research Foundation/SUNY relationship." Paid for with $290,000 in public funds, the report is said to offer a comprehensive look at the Research Foundation. But Chancellor Nancy Zimpher, who commissioned the report shortly after coming to SUNY in 2009, considers it protected by lawyer-client privilege. SUNY won't even say why she had the report done in the first place.

So let's get this straight: The state-funded SUNY had to pay nearly $300,000 to understand its own murky relationship with the Research Foundation, yet the public that foots the bill for SUNY is told, "none of your business"?

It's all the more of public interest right now, when SUNY Vice Chancellor John J. O'Connor, who also headed the Research Foundation for 15 years, is facing charges from the state Commission on Public Integrity that he hired Susan Bruno, daughter of former Republican Senate leader Joseph L. Bruno, for a no-show job as Mr. O'Connor's special assistant. She resigned the $84,120-a-year job in 2009 amid Times Union inquiries about it. Mr. O'Connor denies the charges and has even asked that a court create an entity to monitor the commission's handling of his case.

Ms. Zimpher, who in recent weeks has been out talking about SUNY's contributions to the state, must appreciate as a public official that she has to take the bad with the good -- and divulge both whether she likes it or not.

If she and the trustees want the Legislature to give SUNY so much independence -- to set tuition, forge private partnerships and manage its affairs without legislative approval -- they have to show that SUNY is willing to be accountable to the public.

And if SUNY refuses, then other state officials should ask why.

This might be a good place for Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli and Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who have teamed up to investigate and prosecute corruption in state government, to get started. The comptroller's and attorney general's offices, it's worth noting, were parties to the 1977 agreement that formalized the Research Foundation's role as fiscal administrator for SUNY's grants. It makes perfect sense that they'd want to look at how the foundation is handling things, starting with an audit by the comptroller.

And then let the rest of us in on the secret.

THE ISSUE:

SUNY says a report of keen public interest is "privileged."

THE STAKES:

Secrecy doesn't help SUNY's cause for greater public trust.

NY. Public School, Private dealings

State University of New York refuses to release a report - paid for with $290,000 in public funds - on its relationship with the Research Foundation.

The State University of New York ("SUNY') wraps itself in the cloak of secrecy of the SUNY Research Foundation.

The university refuses to release a report on its relationship with the Research Foundation. So much for shedding some light on this rather covert entity that handles $1 billion in grants annually and has been tainted by corruption and patronage allegations for years. SUNY says the report is "privileged."

SUNY RESEARCH - under investigation for covering up $22 billion medicaid fraud
http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Were-state-audits-faked-598325.phphttp://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Feds-probing-Medicaid-fraud-at-SUNY-firm-557890.php

NOT SUNY RESEARCH'S FIRST FRAUD

http://oig.hhs.gov/oas/reports/region2/29302006.pdf

And therein lies the problem -- with a secret foundation, with SUNY's outrageous pay hikes and housing allowances for top administrators, with a possible no-show job for the daughter of a former Senate majority leader, with the suggestion that higher education is beyond scrutiny: The air of privilege that SUNY exudes is sometimes breathtaking.

The report, done by legal consultant Hogan Lovells US LLP, is on the "Research Foundation/SUNY relationship." Paid for with $290,000 in public funds, the report is said to offer a comprehensive look at the Research Foundation. But Chancellor Nancy Zimpher, who commissioned the report shortly after coming to SUNY in 2009, considers it protected by lawyer-client privilege. SUNY won't even say why she had the report done in the first place.

So let's get this straight: The state-funded SUNY had to pay nearly $300,000 to understand its own murky relationship with the Research Foundation, yet the public that foots the bill for SUNY is told, "none of your business"?

It's all the more of public interest right now, when SUNY Vice Chancellor John J. O'Connor, who also headed the Research Foundation for 15 years, is facing charges from the state Commission on Public Integrity that he hired Susan Bruno, daughter of former Republican Senate leader Joseph L. Bruno, for a no-show job as Mr. O'Connor's special assistant. She resigned the $84,120-a-year job in 2009 amid Times Union inquiries about it. Mr. O'Connor denies the charges and has even asked that a court create an entity to monitor the commission's handling of his case.

And if SUNY refuses, then other state officials should ask why.

This might be a good place for Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli and Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who have teamed up to investigate and prosecute corruption in state government, to get started. The comptroller's and attorney general's offices, it's worth noting, were parties to the 1977 agreement that formalized the Research Foundation's role as fiscal administrator for SUNY's grants. It makes perfect sense that they'd want to look at how the foundation is handling things, starting with an audit by the comptroller.

And then let the rest of us in on the secret.

Read more: