Via Lawrence Person's excellent BattleSwarm Blog; highly recommended:[National Review] - Former New York governor Andrew Cuomo has been ordered by the state’s ethics board to forfeit $5.1 million in profits next month from the memoir he published over the pandemic.
In a near unanimous decision, a twelve to one vote, the New York Joint Commission on Public Ethics passed a resolution demanding that Cuomo return his earnings from the book, "American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic." This comes a month after the panel rescinded its prior approval giving the now disgraced governor permission to keep the book side hustle while he was still serving as governor of New York, confronting multiple scandals simultaneously.
Here's this CPA's analysis of the above, left as a comment on BattleSwarm Blog:
Even better — he’s got a serious tax problem or two now, in addition to an inability to pay all of it back. It’s a reasonable assumption that he received this $5.1M in the form of an advance in 2020 and presumably paid taxes on all of it at the highest Federal marginal rate of 37% (approximately $1.8M), in addition to whatever the highest NY state tax rate is. For lack of a better way to describe it, this income is now effectively disgorged in another tax year. My knowledge of the Internal Revenue Code, while not absolute, does not indicate an easy avenue for him to recoup this $1.8M from the Feds or NY state, for that matter. I don’t see a way for him to amend his 2020 Federal tax return since the ’loss’ / disgorgement occurred in another tax year, and how’s he gonna cough up the full $5.1M advance when over 40% is gone through taxes? Do you think he’s got $2M sitting around to cover the difference?Lawrence Person makes an excellent point, mentioning our old pal Sammy 'The Bull' Gravano:
In my professional opinion, he’s fucked.
How unpopular is Cuomo? Even former Gambino Family underboss Sammy "The Bull" Gravano said Cuomo’s granny-killing was beyond the pale. "I don’t give a f— who tells me to do that, whether it’s [former President] Trump, the president, the vice president, you, him, I would never do it...And I’m a badass. I’d never do it."When you're involved in untold thousands, that's how.
How bad do you have to suck to have a guy involved in 19 murders to think you’re scum?
Since National Review sucks big hairy donkey ballz, in addition to skimping on salient information, this New York Post article gives some better details, making me slightly reconsider some of the above:
Whether the state can claw back the profits from Cuomo’s self congratulatory pandemic memoir remains to be seen, with some ethics experts questioning the legality, along with the ex-governor. James issued a statement saying, ""We are currently reviewing JCOPE’s vote and determining how best to move forward."Let the assholes fight it out, and bring me some popcorn so I can enjoy the show!
Cuomo’s office said earlier that he netted about $1.5 million after taxes and expenses
he's claiming serious six-figure 'expenses' writing a fucking book - ed.
for the book last year, with one-third donated to the United Way of New York State and the rest plowed into an irrevocable trust for his three grown daughters.
"JCOPE has exactly zero authority to issue an order such as this," said David Grandeau, a former executive director of the state’s ethics agency. "All it [the law] says is JCOPE has the right to issue opinions and opinions are like a—holes, and in JCOPE’s case, there’s 13 of them. There’s just no authority to issue it. "