Ex-Prosecutor's Monthly Student Loan Bill Was Unlawfully Cut From $1,030 to $400, Says IG Report
A former New York prosecutor benefited from special treatment by a state agency, which unlawfully arranged during the past three or four years to cut his monthly student loan bill from $1,030 to $400, an inspector general’s report says.
Then, when Michael McDermott still didn’t ante up the $400, workers at the Higher Education Services Corp. canceled over $2,000 in collection fees and protected him from wage garnishment, the IG contends in a report today. Former Albany County prosecutor McDermott is now in private practice at O’Connell & Aronowitz, reports the Albany Times Union.
However, McDermott says he did nothing wrong. “I never requested preferential treatment and did not believe that my account was being handled differently from those of others similarly situated,” he says in a written statement issued yesterday.
McDermott was making about $110,000 annually as a prosecutor and now earns a little over $188,000, reports the newspaper’s Capitol Confidential blog.
The IG’s report has been forwarded to the state attorney general’s office for potential action.