New York Attorney General Letitia James claims her office’s settlement with the owners of the Van Duyn nursing home in Syracuse holds them accountable for taking huge profits while vulnerable residents suffered neglect, harm and even death.

Yes and no.

The AG’s $2 million penalty against owners Efraim Steif and Uri Koenig is a pittance compared with the $37.6 million the state said Van Duyn diverted from the nursing home instead of spending it on resident care. The AG documented more than $100 million in “upfront profit-taking” by the owners since they took over the facility from Onondaga County in 2013.

The $2 million will pay back New York’s taxpayer-funded Medicaid program. James said Steif and Koenig committed financial fraud by paying themselves inflated rent from 2015 to 2022.

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