Former LI Urologist's Employer To Pay More Than $1 Billion To Patients In Sexual Abuse Settlement: Officials

LONG ISLAND, NY — Weill Cornell Medicine has agreed to pay more than $1 billion in civil claims to the victims of former Long Island urologist Darius Paduch after he was accused of sexual abuse and misconduct in the healthcare setting, officials said.

The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Jay Clayton, and Criminal Division Chief, Amanda Houle, announced on July 27 the voluntary compliance agreement, which WCM acknowledged that during Paduch's time working at WCM, some policies and programs were "inadequate to detect, prevent, and respond to the sexual abuse of patients."

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, the agreement also addresses control failures that enabled patient abuse.

"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," Clayton said.

Paduch was a specialist in infertility and male reproductive health, officials said. Victims of Paduch's sexual abuse suffered from certain genetic conditions, as well as sexual and erectile dysfunction, the U.S. Attorney's Office stated.

Paduch was sentenced to life imprisonment after a criminal trial in 2024, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. He 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, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

Prosecutors said that Paduch perpetrated the abuse between 2015 and 2019 while alone with his patients in the exam room. He practiced in medical offices in Manhattan and New Jersey at the time, officials said.

In 2019, Paduch left New York-Presbyterian and was hired at Northwell Health on Long Island, where he worked from August 2019 until the present, and according to Paduch's former website, his practice was located in Great Neck.

Since the charges and indictment against Paduch were unveiled in 2023, the case has expanded, with more than 200 boys and men stepping forward, accusing Paduch of molestation during their medical care, prosecutors said.

During medical appointments, Paduch was accused of sexual acts, some of which included instructing or engaging in masturbation, sometimes without gloves, performing needless rectal exams, and pressing his own body against the patients, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

WCM stated it will commit $30 million to create an Institute for Safe Patient Care and Patient Empowerment that is supposed to help "drive dialogue and action" by healthcare organizations to identify and prevent sexual misconduct.

In a statement, WCM said the former faculty member's misconduct represented a "profound betrayal of our mission and the trust that patients place in physicians and medical institutions. No patient should ever experience abuse by a clinician."

The group stated it has already implemented reforms to enhance patient safety and to prevent future misconduct, such as expanded chaperone requirements, creating a centralized process for patient complaints and reporting sexual misconduct, and developing protocols that reduce the risk that abuse could go undetected.

PVCA Law represented 150 patients who accused Paduch of sexual abuse. Mallory Allen, a partner at PCVA Law and attorney, commended the DOJ for acknowledging that patient safety depends on hospitals taking responsibility.

"Patients come to doctors for care; trusting that doctors are vetted and monitored, and will fulfill their oath to do no harm," Allen said. "Weill Cornell failed to uphold that responsibility and trust, enabling a predator like Darius Paduch to exploit his position and abuse patients for years."

Allen said the agreement between the DOJ and WCM "stems directly from the unrelenting and courageous efforts of survivors who sought more than individual justice."