New York, Dec. 21: The state ethics commission imposed a record fine of $62,125 on the New York Governor, Mr David A. Paterson, on Monday for soliciting and accepting free tickets to the 2009 World Series from the New York Yankees. The panel said he knew he had broken the law and then lied under oath to cover it up. The ruling came just 11 days before Mr Paterson is to leave office, providing an embarrassing coda to his error-plagued tenure and underscoring how a seemingly trivial ethical misstep could mushroom into a damaging scandal.
The panel found that Mr Paterson, a Democrat, violated ethics laws by asking the Yankees, who have many matters before the state, for a gift worth thousands of dollars, leaving the impression that the team could exert improper influence over him.
“The moral and ethical tone of any organisation is set at the top,” said Michael G. Cherkasky, chairman of the panel, the New York State Commission on Public Integrity. “Unfortunately the governor set a totally inappropriate tone by his dishonest and unethical conduct. Such conduct cannot be tolerated by any New York State employee, particularly our governor.”
In its ruling, the commission found that the governor’s sworn testimony about how he obtained the tickets — and his assertion that he always intended to pay for them — had been refuted by one of his own top aides, and was further undermined by officials with the Yankees, a handwriting expert and documentary evidence — “not to mention common sense.”