Weill Cornell Medicine Resolves Criminal Investigation With Agreement To Maintain And Enhance Remedial Measures And Procedures To Prevent Sexual Abuse Of Patients

United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Jay Clayton, and Criminal Division Chief, Amanda Houle, announced today a voluntary compliance agreement (the "Agreement") under Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA") with Weill Cornell Medicine ("WCM"), pursuant to which WCM acknowledges that policies and programs during physician Darius Paduch's tenure at WCM were inadequate to detect, prevent, and respond to the sexual abuse of patients.

"Today's landmark agreement with WCM is a direct reflection of our Office's pledge to prioritize combating sexual abuse through a victim-centered approach," said Criminal Division Chief Amanda Houle. "When victims are front of mind for our core community institutions-including in healthcare-sexual abuse is better detected, reported, and prosecuted so that perpetrators are held responsible and others are deterred. Today's agreement shows the benefits to victims when we pair criminal accountability for individual perpetrators with institutional obligations to maintain the strongest possible controls to safeguard against future sexual abuse. Thanks to the work of our dedicated Assistant U.S. Attorneys, Darius Paduch is spending his life in prison for his horrific crimes and, importantly, WCM, a leader in healthcare for New Yorkers, is committed to maintaining an industry-leading sexual-abuse prevention program and to self-reporting any future federal crimes involving sexual misconduct to our Office. In addition to requiring continued enhancement of controls and reporting, the agreement requires WCM to commit $30 million and other non-financial support to establish the WCM Institute for Safe Patient Care and Patient Empowerment. We look forward to working with the Institute to set new, higher standards for collaboration among medical institutions, patient safety organizations, regulators, and law enforcement aimed at stopping sexual abuse and ensuring prompt reporting of sexual misconduct in the healthcare system and in our community more generally."

"Along with U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton, I am proud to announce this agreement as a milestone in our ongoing victim-oriented effort, which is carried out every day by the women and men of the Southern District, including in our Civil Rights and Human Trafficking Unit. In the past 18 months, our Office has charged more than 45 individuals with federal sex crimes, including teachers, licensed therapists, bankers, and others in positions of significant trust, as well as gang members and drug traffickers. Our Office will continue with full force to prosecute perpetrators and to hold institutions to the highest standards in protecting victims."

"As the public has seen time and again, when medical institutions fail to implement and enforce robust safeguards to protect patients from sexual abuse, victims suffer unspeakable harms, and the public trust in the doctor-patient relationship is undermined," said U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton. "Today's agreement sends a strong, clear message to all healthcare institutions: patient sexual abuse should never happen in our healthcare system, and institutions must devote the necessary resources to build and continuously monitor and improve programs that detect, report, and prevent sexual abuse-without exception. The agreement also underscores the commitment of our Office, in particular our Civil Rights and Human Trafficking Unit, to protecting victims from sex crimes in all corners of society. Together with our law enforcement partners, including the FBI and the NYPD, we are working with our schools, hospitals, businesses, government organizations, and other institutions to ensure that processes for identifying predators are improved and victims feel safe coming forward."

Title III of the ADA prohibits places of public accommodation from discriminating against any individual on the basis of disability. Victims of Darius Paduch's sexual abuse suffered from certain genetic conditions, as well as sexual and erectile dysfunction, each of which constitutes a "disability" under the ADA. In 2024, following a criminal trial in this District, Paduch was convicted of six counts of inducement to travel to engage in unlawful sexual activity, and five counts of inducement of a minor to travel to engage in unlawful sexual activity, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Sections 2422(a), (b), and 2. Paduch was sentenced to life imprisonment for his crimes.

The out-of-court Agreement resolves a yearslong criminal investigation during which the U.S. Attorney's Office determined that over Paduch's tenure, WCM maintained policies and programs insufficient to detect, prevent, and respond to Paduch's widespread sexual abuse of patients. Specifically, as detailed in the Agreement announced today, the investigation found, among other things, the following:

• From at least 2009 to 2019, Paduch sexually abused many of his patients-including boys as young as 13 years old. During that time, WCM policy delegated to the now-former Urology Department chair (the "Former Urology Chair") primary responsibility and authority to investigate staff and patient complaints, as well as the discretion to escalate complaints to the Dean or Vice Dean of the Medical School.
• Between 2012 and 2014, the Former Urology Chair and the WCM Human Resources Department received reports of instances of Paduch using inappropriate sexual language and engaging in inappropriate conduct with colleagues.
• In 2015 and 2016, the Former Urology Chair received two reports from two doctors that Paduch had manually masturbated one patient to become erect for an exam and directed another patient to masturbate while Paduch remained in the room. The Former Urology Chair did not escalate these allegations against Paduch or report them to others at WCM.
• In March 2018, WCM, including the Former Urology Chair, received a complaint alleging that Paduch told a patient to masturbate in his presence to become erect for an exam and showed the patient photographs of other men's penises during the consultation. WCM assigned that complaint to a WCM employee who had not received training and had no experience in investigating sexual abuse allegations. The Former Urology Chair did not inform the investigator or anyone else at WCM of the prior complaints relating to Paduch.
• In November 2018, an adult male patient reported to the Former Urology Chair that Paduch had engaged in what the patient described as sexual and nonsexual misconduct, including masturbating in front of the patient on Paduch's boat and sending him lewd electronic messages. The report was assigned to the same inexperienced investigator assigned to handle the March 2018 complaint. As a result of the investigation, WCM ended Paduch's employment at WCM by not renewing Paduch's faculty appointment at WCM. WCM sent Paduch's patients a letter noting that Paduch was no longer practicing at WCM but did not provide the reason for his non-renewal. Further, when the Former Urology Chair received inquiries from a separate medical institution where Paduch was subsequently hired and abused patients, he did not disclose the reason for Paduch's termination from WCM or disclose any patient complaints.

Since learning of Paduch's sexual abuse, WCM has paid or agreed to pay victims over $1 billion to settle civil claims to date, and is committing additional funds to address detection, prevention, and reporting of sexual abuse and misconduct in the healthcare setting. To that end, WCM will commit $30 million to create the Institute for Safe Patient Care and Patient Empowerment, which will be dedicated to the adoption of meaningful sexual abuse and misconduct risk mitigation policies, procedures, and practices at healthcare providers in New York and nationwide.

As part of the Agreement, WCM also acknowledged that the policies and programs that WCM had in place at the time of Paduch's offenses were not adequate to detect, prevent, and respond to sexual abuse of patients and, in fact, failed to detect and sufficiently respond to Paduch's conduct. WCM has proactively taken significant remedial measures that WCM has committed to maintaining and enhancing during the term of the Agreement. Under the Agreement, WCM will maintain, monitor, and, as necessary or appropriate, enhance such measures, which include a chaperone requirement with routine compliance oversight and monitoring and policy changes to fill governance and procedural gaps regarding the escalation and investigation of patient misconduct complaints. Further, during the term of the Agreement, WCM is required to self-report to the U.S. Attorney's Office any evidence of a criminal violation involving sexual misconduct. WCM must also conduct three separate internal reviews during the term of the Agreement to evaluate WCM's sexual misconduct prevention programs. WCM must certify semiannually its compliance with the terms of the Agreement.

* * *

Mr. Clayton praised the outstanding work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

This case is being handled by the Office's Civil Rights and Human Trafficking Unit in the Criminal Division, with assistance from the Civil Rights Unit in the Civil Division. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Marguerite B. Colson, Elizabeth A. Espinosa, Ni Qian, and David J. Kennedy are in charge of the case.