The FBI is investigating bombshell allegations of a scheme by top Long Island and New York officials to shut down Nassau University Medical Center, the public hospital’s chairman told The Post on Monday.
NUMC chief Matthew Bruderman revealed he is “cooperating” with the agency, as well as the Department of Justice, in a probe of his claims that the hospital was robbed of more than $1 billion over decades to ensure its failure.
Bruderman said he believes the officials’ ultimate goal was to financially strangle the public hospital, paving the way for state and local leaders to shut it down, take over the land currently owned by the public-benefit corporation that runs it and have it redeveloped for profit.
“It is a fact that New York state did not pay their share of the money owed” to keep NUMC running, said Bruderman, who receives no salary in his post and recently sued the state over his allegations.
“And now I’m going to prove it,’’ the chairman said just days after Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman met with FBI Director Kash Patel on Long Island.
“I have every bank account, document, transfer, everything,” he said.
Patel’s meeting with Blakeman occurred after the FBI chief received a letter from Bruderman and Missouri Rep. Eric Burlison, who sits on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, the CEO said.
The letter urged Patel and US Attorney General Pam Bondi to open an investigation into “what appears to be a large financial scheme, uncovered by hospital leadership.’’
At the center of the alleged scheme is a little-known federal program called the Disproportionate Share Hospital Fund — meant to help keep afloat struggling hospitals such as NUMC, which treat large numbers of low-income patients on Medicaid and Medicare.
Under the program, the federal government agrees to give these hospitals tens of millions of dollars in funding as long as their state matches the investment.
Bruderman came on board at NUMC in 2022, when it was facing a $180 million deficit.
He said he started digging through the books to find out why the hospital was struggling as badly as it was but that the math didn’t add up.
Bruderman, who has over 30 years of experience as a financial expert, claims to have discovered that past hospital leadership would secretly “borrow” what was supposed to be the state’s share of money from a Cayman Islands-based offshore account for the medical center’s legal fees for various lawsuits.
He said previous hospital leadership would have to have been colluding with state and past county officials to pull this off.
Hospital officials would move this money into NUMC’s general fund temporarily, just long enough to show the feds that the state’s portion had been “paid” — which would unlock the federal government’s share, Bruderman said.
Then once the federal money hit the account, the hospital would quietly move the state’s portion back offshore — leaving only the feds’ contribution behind — and meaning the state hasn’t actually paid its share in years, he said.
“This is corruption that is both broad and deep within our State’s government. This wasn’t a clerical oversight, a bookkeeping mistake or incompetence,” Bruderman said in the letter to Patel and Bondi.
“What we’ve uncovered was nefarious, intentional and the State covered it up for years to starve this hospital and the people it serves of resources.”
Bruderman told The Post, “When I brought what I found to Gov. Hochul’s office, I thought I was going to get a medal.”
Instead, he said, he has received push back, ridicule and a “complete shut-out” of communication with her office since.
Gordon Tepper, Hochul’s Long Island press secretary, denied the claims by Bruderman.
“The leadership at NUMC continues to waste time and resources on a bizarre public relations campaign,” Tepper told The Post. “The state remains focused on what really matters — patient care and the fiscal health of the hospital.”
Bruderman, who was appointed to the hospital by Blakeman, has since helped the hospital do a complete 180 financially.
NUMC is on track to profit roughly $11 million this year after being in the hole nearly $200 million just two years prior, according to the public corporation that runs it, NuHealth.
“My goal is to protect this hospital, and I will do everything in my power and not stop until this hospital is protected,” Bruderman said.
The FBI declined to comment, while the AG’s office didn’t respond to The Post’s request for comment.
