Staff Reports
According to reports, Jeffrey Zients, who was reportedly picked by Joe Biden to be his next chief of staff, has an extensive history of financial problems.
From January to April of 2022, Zients served in the White House as the Coordinator for the Coronavirus Response. Before that, he was a part of the management team of a healthcare company that was fined millions of dollars for fraud.
Before he became the Biden White House's next chief of staff, Zients had experience in government. As part of the Obama administration, he helped fix the problematic rollout of the Affordable Care Act's online healthcare exchange, Healthcare.gov. At the time, some people criticized him due to his financial conflicts of interest.
In 2015, the US Department of Justice imposed a fine on Portfolio Logic, an investment firm that was founded by Zients, for its role in defrauding the government. The firm was forced to pay almost $7 million for violating regulations related to the payment of claims. According to the agency, PSA Healthcare had overpaid for certain services that were not provided.
According to an article by the American Prospect, Amedisys, which Portfolio Logic owned a significant stake in, settled with the Department of Justice for $150 million for Medicare fraud.
Before becoming the White House's top official for coronavirus response, Zients worked with Wall Street firm Cranemere. The company was reportedly able to acquire several healthcare firms that were accused of engaging in medical malpractice and surprise billing. One of these is NorthStar, which is known for charging patients for services that were not provided in their network.
As he prepared to become the next chief of staff of the US government, Zients made numerous trips to the White House. One of these was to work as a consultant for Bain & Company. According to the New York Times, he also served on the board of directors of Facebook from 2018 to 2020. Financial disclosure reports released last year revealed that Zients had a net worth of around $89 million.
The appointment of Zients as the next White House chief of staff was reportedly due to the support he received from Ron Klain, who was the previous chief of staff. During the Ebola outbreak in 2014, Klain was instrumental in leading the Obama administration's response.
The response effort to the coronavirus outbreak had its up and downs. For instance, despite the help from the Trump administration in developing the COVID-19 vaccine, the Biden administration was criticized for taking too long to distribute the shots to the public.
White House COVID coordinator Jeff Zients implores people to get vaccinated amid emergence of omicron.
"For the unvaccinated, you're looking at a winter of severe illness and death—for yourselves, your families, and the hospitals you may soon overwhelm." https://t.co/5kZ9YB8Nw6 pic.twitter.com/IjzUnymqg3
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) December 17, 2021
In addition, he was criticized for making a frightening prediction about the potential impact of the coronavirus epidemic on the US in December 2021.
Klain leaves his position as the longest-serving chief of staff for a Democratic president.
The preceding is a summary of an article that originally appeared on DAILY CALLER.
