Catherine Pugh; Friend or Foe?
To me, this is a scandal that should never have happened and furthermore, the person who is now facing three years of jail on tax evasion and conspiracy is probably wondering why she took the path that she took. It is what happens to good people who make bad choices.
Healthy Holly
Catherine Pugh is both an ex-mayor and an author. It is not uncommon for politicians to have penned books, but Pugh took it to a higher level. While Mayor of Baltimore, Pugh wrote a children’s book entitled “Healthy Holly.” In addition to being a mayor and an author, Pugh was also a board member of the University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS). This turned out to be one of many unethical combinations that Pugh could not resist.
The book is about health and nutrition for children. Pugh was “awarded” $500,000 from UMMS for 100,000 copies of the books. The problem was that UMMS claimed there was no contract, and the book purchases were described by the hospital as “grants” in federal filings. Someone in purchasing just paid most of it, apparently influenced by Pugh’s power.
Health care provider Kaiser Permanente also paid Pugh about $114,000 in books between 2015 and 2018. This was when Pugh was head of Baltimore’s spending board. The Kaiser Foundation had approved a $48 million contract. It was a favor returned with a favor.
On a smaller scale. the Maryland Auto Insurance Fund also purchased nearly $12,000 worth of “Healthy Holly” books to help them with their influence.
Where was all of this money going? To Pugh’s campaign account and personal accounts. It was essentially a “pay to play deal.” The payments were used to fund Pugh’s political aspirations but they wound up helping no one but Pugh.
In all, the ex-mayor must pay restitution to UMMS to the tune of $400,000 as well as Kaiser and the insurance fund. It will cost her more than $600,000 in restitution.
The Defense Rests
Ex-mayor Pugh’s legal team put together a 15-minute video extolling her contributions to the people of Baltimore. She expressed deep remorse. The judge, U.S. District Judge Deborah K. Chasanow was unimpressed:
“It is astounding and I have yet frankly to hear any explanation that makes sense. This was not a tiny mistake, lapse of judgment. This became a very large fraud. The nature and circumstances of this offense clearly I think are extremely, extremely serious.”
The ex-mayor’s lawyers asked for a one-year, one-day sentence; the judge slapped her with three years. Pugh personally profited from the book sales and tried to evade taxes as they were under the guise of campaign contributions.
For a while, Catherine Pugh was a tremendously powerful person in the City of Baltimore and she used that power to push the sales of a children’s book. The money that came in for from those sales fueled her need for money and power. The sale was a thinly-disguised bribe in return for favors. There was no oversite within government and frankly, the insiders at some of the contributing organizations had little in the way of oversite as well.
Perhaps Pugh’s rationalization as she got in deeper and deeper was that she had built up a lot of “Karma” over the years helping people, and she somehow deserved “tribute.” It is hard to know. However, public office should not work that way. It is supposed to be self-less not a source of profits. In the end, it is hard not to wonder how many patients could have benefitted from those $600,000 plus in contributions that found their way to Pugh’s “fund.”
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