{"id":1566143,"date":"2022-07-22T10:04:07","date_gmt":"2022-07-22T14:04:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1566143"},"modified":"2022-07-22T10:04:14","modified_gmt":"2022-07-22T14:04:14","slug":"new-york-family-gave-hochul-300k-state-paid-their-company-637m-for-covid-tests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/new-york-family-gave-hochul-300k-state-paid-their-company-637m-for-covid-tests\/","title":{"rendered":"New York Family Gave Hochul $300K, State Paid Their Company $637M For COVID Tests"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">28<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fnew-york-family-gave-hochul-300k-state-paid-their-company-637m-for-covid-tests%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1566143&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/topic\/new-york-city\">New York City<\/a> family has given Governor <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/topic\/kathy-hochul\">Kathy Hochul<\/a>\u2018s campaign hundreds of thousands of dollars, while the state has paid the family\u2019s company more than half a million dollars.<\/p>\n<p>Entrepreneur Charlie Tebele\u2019s family donated close to $300,000 to Hochul\u2019s campaign, according to an investigative <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timesunion.com\/state\/article\/A-single-family-has-donated-300K-to-Hochul-17310875.php\">report<\/a> by the Times Union published Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, New York paid hundreds of millions for COVID tests to Tebele\u2019s company, Digital Gadgets. Since December, the New York Health Department has paid Digital Gadgets $637 million in taxpayer funds for COVID test kits, records from the state comptroller\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.osc.state.ny.us\/open-book-new-york\">website<\/a>\u00a0show.<\/p>\n<p>The health department did not conduct any competitive bidding before ordering the COVID tests from the company and paying it the enormous sum.<\/p>\n<p>Digital Gadgets, which is based in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/topic\/new-jersey\">New Jersey<\/a>, normally makes and sells electronic devices to the home shopping network QVC and others, the Times Union reported. Like many other companies, the electronics wholesaler began making medical equipment in 2020 in response to the pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>Hochul signed an executive order back in November suspending competitive bidding as well as the contract review and approval process for some contracts.<\/p>\n<p>However, there was apparently never any formal contract between the health department and Digital Gadgets, State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli\u2019s office said, and the department simply made \u201cpurchase orders\u201d for the tests.<\/p>\n<p>The money from the health department to Digital Gadgets was doled out in 239 separate payments from December 30 to March 25, according to the\u00a0state comptroller\u2019s website. The state made two purchase orders for 52 million COVID tests.<\/p>\n<p>A Hochul senior advisor, Bryan Lesswing, told the Times Union that the state looked at several vendors, but Digital Gadgets was the only company that could deliver the large amount of COVID tests the state needed before schools reopened in January of this year. New York also bought COVID tests from other vendors, Lesswing said.<\/p>\n<p>An attorney for Tebele told the outlet that Tebele \u201cnever had a conversation\u201d with Hochul about the deal.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt the height of omicron when even the federal government could not supply tests, Mr. Tebele supplied tens of millions of tests to the State of New York in record time,\u201d attorney Harlan Lazarus said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>Tebele and his wife Nancy have a long history as political donors in New York. Both have donated the maximum amount allowed to Hochul,\u00a0$69,700.<\/p>\n<p>In recent years, Digital Gadgets has secured several other lucrative contracts with New York state as well.<\/p>\n<p>The company had at least two lucrative contracts for medical equipment with Governor <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/cuomo-nursing-home-scandal-worse-than-previously-reported-aides-spent-months-hiding-death-toll\">Andrew Cuomo<\/a>\u2018s administration, but on a $100,000 contract, no money has been paid out, and on a $600,000 contract the money was returned.<\/p>\n<p>The company also snagged $119 million in emergency no-bid contracts for COVID equipment at the height of the pandemic in spring 2020 from former New York City <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/de-blasio-claims-mandates-that-threaten-peoples-paychecks-and-their-dining-experience-are-good-for-business\">Mayor Bill de Blasio<\/a>\u2019s administration.<\/p>\n<p>Shortly before the de Blasio deals were made, the Tebele family donated about $44,000 to de Blasio\u2019s campaigns and related PACS.<\/p>\n<p>In another detail, both Hochul\u2019s campaign and de Blasio\u2019s presidential campaign reportedly hired a member of the Tebele family, a college student, Hochul paying him $3,700 a month to be a campaign fundraising \u201cfinance associate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>At least three of the Tebele family donors are listed in campaign filings as having the same address as\u00a0Charlie and Nancy Tebele\u2019s $11.5 million\u00a0Upper East Side home.<\/p>\n<p>State law prohibits political donors from being reimbursed by someone else for campaign donations.<\/p>\n<p>Last month, Hochul received an eyebrow-raising $104,000 from at least five members of the Tebele family.<\/p>\n<p>Several Tebele family members who have donated recently had never donated to a New York state election.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMr. Tebele\u2019s children are successful businesspeople in their own right and make political donations independent of their father,\u201d Tebele\u2019s attorney said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A New York City family has given Governor Kathy Hochul\u2018s campaign hundreds of thousands of dollars, while the state has paid the family\u2019s company more than half a million dollars. Entrepreneur Charlie Tebele\u2019s family donated close to $300,000 to Hochul\u2019s campaign, according to an investigative report by the Times Union published Tuesday. Meanwhile, New York &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1575026,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1566143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1566143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1566143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1566143\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1575026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1566143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1566143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1566143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}