Columbia puni$hes Shel doc
Columbia University can’t fire Dr. Robert Taub — who funneled cancer patients to disgraced politician Sheldon Silver in exchange for funding — so they’ve stripped the tenured professor of his grant money, title and staff raises.
Taub sued when Columbia tried to terminate him after Silver was indicted on corruption charges, and a judge ordered that he could keep his job pending the outcome of a civil trial.
So university officials took away a private $1.6 million grant that funded Taub’s mesothelioma research, refused to give his staff a 2.5 percent annual costofliving raise and barred him from leading new projects.
“In the long run, this would be my professional death for it means no new clinical trials, the inability to provide cuttingedge therapies to my patients, no new funding, no lab and no staff,” Taub says in court papers filed Wednesday.
The physician, who received immunity for his cooperation against Silver, is asking a judge to fine his employer.
Taub still draws a $300,000 salary but the cutbacks mean he’s “been fired from 75%” of his job, he says in an affidavit.
Taub testified that he sent Silver up to 50 cancer patients and, in exchange, got $500,000 in taxpayerfunded grants. Silver then referred the cases to an asbestos law firm that paid him $3 million in legal fees.
Lawyers for Columbia declined to comment.