{"id":2807,"date":"2025-01-17T15:22:06","date_gmt":"2025-01-17T21:22:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thexradio3.com\/news\/?p=2807"},"modified":"2025-01-17T15:23:58","modified_gmt":"2025-01-17T21:23:58","slug":"dr-ezike-former-illinois-covid-leader-fined-for-ethics-violation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/local-news\/2807-dr-ezike-former-illinois-covid-leader-fined-for-ethics-violation\/","title":{"rendered":"Dr. Ezike, Former Illinois COVID Leader, Fined for Ethics Violation"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"pdfprnt-buttons pdfprnt-buttons-post pdfprnt-top-right\"><a href=\"javascript: window.print()\" class=\"pdfprnt-button pdfprnt-button-print\" target=\"_self\" ><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-content\/plugins\/pdf-print\/images\/print.png\" alt=\"image_print\" title=\"Print Content\" \/><span class=\"pdfprnt-button-title pdfprnt-button-print-title\">Print<\/span><\/a><\/div><p>By BRIGETTE FOX<\/p>\n<p>Capitol News Illinois<\/p>\n<p>bfox@capitolnewsillinois.com<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"background-color: initial; font-size: 10pt;\">Former Director of the Illinois Department of Public Health Dr. Ngozi Ezike, who led state health policy during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, will pay a $150,000 fine for violating a state anti-corruption law.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">Ezike violated the State Officials and Employees Ethics Act\u2019s \u201crevolving door\u201d provision in 2022 by accepting a job as CEO of Sinai Chicago, a hospital based on Chicago\u2019s West side.&nbsp; &nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">The state\u2019s former top doctor admitted to state investigators she was guilty of the violation, according to a report released Friday outlining the almost three-year-long investigation by the state\u2019s Executive Ethics Commission into her taking that job.&nbsp; Ezike could not be reached for comment.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">Under the Ethics Act, a high-level state employee, like Ezike was, can\u2019t take a job with an organization that was subject to certain contracts, licensing, or regulatory decisions from the state within one year of leaving their government position.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">Sinai Health System received $4.2 million in grants from IDPH in the year before Ezike left and was the subject of IDPH regulation.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">According to a statement from her legal team in the report, Ezike sought opinions from counsel and her ethics officer at IDPH before accepting the position.&nbsp; That counsel told Ezike not to consider the money Sinai Chicago received in grant funding from the IDPH to be \u201ccontracts.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">\u201cShe thought she was able to accept the job,\u201d Ezike\u2019s legal team wrote in its filing to investigators. \u201cDr. Ezike accepts responsibility and appreciates the Office of the Attorney General\u2019s role in settling this matter.&nbsp; She also asks the Commission to recognize the challenges for employees navigating the revolving door prohibition.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">The Executive Ethics Commission accepted the $150,000 settlement agreement between Attorney General Kwame Raoul\u2019s office and Ezike.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">However, the investigation from the Office of the Executive Inspector General found that \u201cthere was not \u2018good faith\u2019 or an honest intent to find out whether the revolving door provisions applied.\u201d&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">Ezike did not disclose that she\u2019d talked to other government employees about wanting to be hired at Sinai, according to the OEIG.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">Ezike contacted the OEIG to let them know she was planning to take the job with Sinai in April 2022 after she left the IDPH in March 2022.&nbsp; However, the OEIG report said she had been interviewing for the position since November of the previous year.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">The office reportedly told Ezike to continue consulting with legal counsel and the IDPH ethics officer during the year after her employment ended.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em>Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By BRIGETTE FOX Capitol News Illinois bfox@capitolnewsillinois.com Former Director of the Illinois Department of Public Health Dr. Ngozi Ezike, who led state health policy during the height of the COVID-19 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Dr. Ezike, Former Illinois COVID Leader, Fined for Ethics Violation - Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader, 979XFM and KJ Country 102.3<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/local-news\/2807-dr-ezike-former-illinois-covid-leader-fined-for-ethics-violation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dr. Ezike, Former Illinois COVID Leader, Fined for Ethics Violation - 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