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AIDS SCANDAL COULD TAINT GORE
By Wayne Turner
ACT UP/DC
FEBRUARY 15, 2000
A top official with Al Gore's presidential campaign is at the center of an under-reported fundraising scandal, where millions of federal taxpayer dollars intended to help AIDS victims were embezzled, and diverted to political campaigns. Gore's man, Governor Pedro Rosello of Puerto Rico, has been directly implicated and twice subpoenaed to testify in the corruption case, which last week yielded another two convictions by the US Attorney's Office.
The scandal centers upon the now defunct San Juan AIDS Institute, which received millions of federal dollars to provide medical care to poor people living with HIV and AIDS under the Ryan White CARE Act. Instead, funds were used to support the lavish lifestyle of AIDS Institute directors, and diverted to the election campaigns of political supporters, including Governor Rosello.
Federal authorities convicted three defendants last year, former executives of the San Juan AIDS Institute. Nearly $2.5 million of AIDS Institute money had been embezzled. Prosecutors outlined a paper trail of dummy corporations, off-shore bank accounts, payments for luxury cars, personal maids, and cash pay-offs to political groups - all using AIDS funds.
According to a prosecution witness testifying under oath, Governor Rosello supervised the transfer of $250,000 in a shoe box full of cash, from the AIDS Institute, to support his 1992 election campaign.
Governor Rosello continues to deny involvement in the AIDS Institute scandal, yet his denials are reminiscent of the Claude Raines' character in Casablanca who is "shocked" to find gambling going on at Rick's.
Prior to his election as Governor of Puerto Rico, Rosello ran the health department for the City of San Juan. In addition to administering the federal AIDS grants as San Juan's Health Director, Rosello hand-selected the same AIDS Institute Directors who now stand convicted of fraud.
Following the 'guilty' verdicts, on February 11, of the Governor's handymen, US. Attorney Guillermo Gil told the Orlando Sentinel, "We're going to keep investigating. And all those involved in everything we can prove beyond a reasonable doubt -- no matter who they are -- we're going to charge them."
AIDS activists warned last year that Gore should wait until the investigations are completed before embracing Governor Rosello, least another fundraising scandal taint the Vice President. Instead, Gore proudly named Rosello to head his presidential bid in Puerto Rico as a member of the Gore 2000 Leadership Team.
Craig Smith, then Gore Campaign manager, told the San Juan Star that "Rosello's clout among Hispanics and influence in state government organizations will help galvanize support for Gore," and, although Puerto Ricans cannot directly vote for President, "they can vote in primaries, donate money to campaigns and raise money for candidates."
Gore maintains his unquestioning support for his embroiled supporter, despite the ongoing US Attorney's investigation, two criminal trials, and mounting convictions.
Governor Rosello, who began his career as a pediatrician, is often touted in press reports as a possible Secretary of Health and Human Services under the Gore Administration - a shuddering prospect for the AIDS activists who have long demanded greater oversight and accountability over federal AIDS funding..
During the San Juan trial, a current official with the US Department of Health and Human Services admitted that millions of federal dollars had been paid out to the San Juan AIDS Institute without ever receiving an accounting or audit of those funds.
As far back as 1993, a member of the Puerto Rican legislature, David Rodriguez Noriega, alerted Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala to the fraud and misuse of funds surrounding the San Juan AIDS Institute. He outlined for Shalala substantial evidence of corruption, as a result of his office's investigation, and yet received only a form letter back from the HHS Secretary, once again earning the nickname 'Donna Do Nothing.'
In Puerto Rico, surviving patients and family members organized to monitor the trial and highlight the real victims in the case. Holding photographs of lost loved ones outside the court room, 'AIDS Patients for Sane Policies' have maintained a constant presence during the proceedings, with the themes, 'We will always remember them', and 'Never Again.'
The misuse of AIDS funds is hardly isolated to Puerto Rico. A bookkeeper working for AIDS groups in Florida recently pleaded guilty to embezzling AIDS money to pay for trips to DisneyWorld totaling $500,000, according to prosecutors. A patient with chronic diarrhea in San Francisco couldn't obtain an adult diaper, though bureaucrats had funded 'dog walking' with federal AIDS dollars. In New York, the newly hired executive director for GMHC was forced to resign after it was revealed he spent over $5,000 on new office furniture while patient services were being cut back.
An audit of federal AIDS programs, conducted by the General Accounting Office, is expected to be released by the end of February. Leaks indicate that the GAO audit will reveal a federal AIDS funding system 'ripe for misuse,' though few cases of outright embezzlement have thus far been documented.
AIDS activists hope the GAO audit will bolster their arguments to strengthen both community and federal oversight over AIDS programs during this year's re authorization of the Ryan White CARE Act, so that no more patients, such as those in Puerto Rico, will die because the federal funds intended for their medical care were exploited by others for political and personal gain.
In the meantime, AIDS patients from Puerto Rico and their stateside supporters have appealed to the Vice President publicly, through letters, and meetings with top Gore campaign staff and White House AIDS Czar Sandra Thurman.
Vice President Al Gore has thus far remained silent with not even an 'I feel your pain,' on the issue of AIDS accountability or the involvement of his own campaign official, Governor Rosello, while AIDS patients suffered, and died.
(Turner is a co-founder of the ACT UP chapter in Washington, DC - www.actupdc.org, and attended portions of the AIDS fraud trial in Puerto Rico last spring.)
Wayne Turner
Coordinator, ACT UP Washington DC
409 H Street NE
Washington, DC 20002
ph: 202-547-9404
