ALBANY – The former head of SUNY’s Downstate Medical Center has agreed to pay a $3,000 fine for billing personal expenses from a planned trip to Bermuda to his state-issued credit card, officials said.
John Williams, who led the medical center from 2012 until his resignation in 2016, violated the state’s Public Officers Law, the Joint Commission on Public Ethics announced on Wednesday.
Williams oversaw and implemented SUNY’s sale of Long Island College Hospital in Brooklyn, a transaction that is now under investigation by the feds.
According to JCOPE, Williams’ assistant charged the airfare for a July 2014 trip to Bermuda to the state since he was there for a business conference as well as a birthday celebration for an executive of a contracted vendor of SUNY Downstate.
The conference was ultimately cancelled, but a charge for airfare was nonetheless made to Williams’ state-issued credit card.
After the charge was discovered as part of an audit by State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, Williams reimbursed the state for the cost of the airfare.
State employees taking trips that include business and personal activities are allowed to bill the state for the work portion of the trip.
Since the business activity was canceled, Williams should not have billed the airfare to the state, according to JCOPE.
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