Frank Parlato
Brooklyn, NY — Over 60 complainants, represented by attorney Jo Saint-George of Women of Color for Equal Justice, have filed a judicial misconduct complaint against U.S. District Judge Eric Komitee. They accuse the judge of corruption, self-dealing, and concealing financial interests tied to Moderna, the vaccine manufacturer at the center of their civil lawsuit.
The group claims Komitee failed to disclose his financial interests in Moderna, the vaccine manufacturer at the heart of their civil case, which the judge dismissed in September.
Conflict of Interest and Concealment
The plaintiffs accuse Judge Komitee of failing to disclose his prior role as General Counsel for Viking Global Investors. This hedge fund participated in a $500 million investment in Moderna, the manufacturer of one of the COVID-19 mRNA vaccines.
This alleged conflict of interest is central to a civil case by the complainants—former New York City workers who objected to the City’s vaccine mandate on religious grounds.
The complainants allege that during the two-and-a-half-year litigation, Judge Komitee refused to hold hearings on critical motions, including those challenging the legal arguments made by the City of New York.
The judicial complaint emphasizes that Judge Komitee had a “close connection” with the Moderna mRNA technology financing, creating an irreconcilable conflict of interest.
The complaint asks for an investigation by a special committee under the Judicial Conduct and Disability Act and referral to the House of Representatives for impeachment proceedings.
Komitee Faces Mounting Scrutiny Amid Allegations of Conflicts in High-Profile Cases
With this complaint, Komitee is central to two significant conflict cases.
Carlos Watson, the convicted CEO of Ozy Media, brought allegations of misconduct against Judge Komitee. Watson, who faces up to 37 years in prison for conspiracy to commit securities and wire fraud, has filed a motion to disqualify Komitee, vacate his conviction, and dismiss the indictment, citing the judge’s financial interests in companies that testified against him during the trial.
Watson asserts Komitee had undisclosed investments in Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Google, and Live Nation—key corporate entities in his conspiracy case—via hedge funds managed by Viking Global and other firms. Watson’s attorneys argue these connections are a severe conflict of interest and give an appearance of impropriety.
Patterns of Undisclosed Wealth and Conflicts
Both cases highlight Komitee’s wealth, disclosed on required judicial financial reports (2021; 2022; 2023) at between $60 million and $102 million, much of which stems from his tenure as General Counsel for Viking Global and his investments and partnerships with Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, and Google – alleged victims in Watson’s case.
During Watson’s trial, Google and Goldman Sachs representatives testified against him, including Google CEO Sundar Pichai.
Komitee held over $1 million worth of stock in the Watson victim companies during the case. Furthermore, he had collaborated closely with two victims, Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan, during his decade as General Counsel for Viking.
Judge Komitee denied he had a conflict because he did not own stock directly, but rather through Viking and other hedge funds, which allowed him to avoid disclosing his ownership interest. He also noted that since none of the Watson victims lost money, he could not order restitution or collect funds through his rulings.
Watson’s legal team has appealed Komitee’s denial of his conflict to the Second Circuit.
Vaccine Case Details
The civil case stems from New York City’s 2021 vaccine mandate, which required employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19 to retain their jobs. Plaintiffs argued the mandate violated their First Amendment rights and protections under the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA).
Plaintiffs, mostly tenured teachers, along with others from the NYC Departments of Education, Transportation, Sanitation, Central Administrative Services, Police, and Children’s Services, claimed the vaccines failed to meet OSHA safety standards and could not prevent airborne COVID-19 transmission. Despite providing over 200 supporting cases and offering the expert testimony of Dr. Baxter Montgomery, the plaintiffs say Komitee refused to hear their motions or allow a jury trial.
Saint-George alleges Komitee’s dismissal of the case on September 25, 2024 coincided suspiciously with another event, one day after New York Mayor Eric Adams was indicted on bribery charges and two days after the city’s ex-COVID czar faced a scandal.
These plaintiffs had been placed on leave without pay or terminated because the City prohibited them from returning to work because of their unvaccinated status, and because the employees refused to take one of three approved COVID vaccines, Pfizer-BioNTech (Comirnaty), Moderna (Spikevax) or Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen.
The plaintiffs based their claim on the First Amendment Free Exercise right to refuse vaccines and their federal statutory right contained in the OSH Act (29 USC 669 Section 25(a)(5 )) which bans vaccine/immunization, medical treatment, and testing mandates by employers on employees who object based on religious grounds.
The City of New York, represented by Sylvia O. Hinds-Radix and Elisheva Rosen, argued that the plaintiffs had no right to individually sue for loss of employment, citing OSH Act 29 USC 660 Section 11(c).
Saint-George expected a hearing on the matter. Instead, Judge Komitee dismissed the case.
Questioning the Judge’s Motives
Saint-George began investigating Komitee after the dismissal, uncovering his 2018 role in Moderna’s mRNA vaccine financing while at Viking Global.
From 2008 until June 30, 2018, Komitee was the General Counsel and key operations executive for Viking Global Investors, LP. Viking is a private equity hedge fund that, in 2018, had approximately $30 billion in assets under management.
One of Komitee’s duties for Viking was a due diligence review of Moderna – its corporate structure, FDA regulatory compliance, safety and clinical studies, and management of Viking’s participation in financing Moderna’s mRNA technology.
Komitee had confidential information, including Moderna’s technology, patents, and clinical trials regarding mRNA vaccine technology.
On February 1, 2018, Moderna announced it had raised $500 million to continue its “pioneering messenger RNA (mRNA) therapeutics and vaccines to create a new generation of transformative medicines for high unmet medical needs in patients.”
The financiers included Viking Global. Komitee worked closely with the placement agents, Goldman Sachs, and JP Morgan, ironically victims in the Watson case.
But that was not the first time Komitee handled a Viking investment into Moderna.
In 2015, Komitee, as General Counsel for Viking, handled due diligence and all legal and regulatory compliance work for its participation in a $450 million investment funding by Moderna to support “Growth of Messenger RNA Therapeutics.”
Viking lists its investment with Moderna on its website portfolio page.
Three months after Viking’s second investment in Moderna, President Trump submitted Komitee’s nomination to the US Senate to fill a vacancy at the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York. Komitee began his commission as a federal district court judge on December 5, 2019.
Disclosure Reveals Wealth and Conflicts
Komitee’s Financial Disclosure Reports covering 2021 – 2023 show that while a federal judge, he served as a Director for the Viking Global Foundation, Inc., which owned investments in Viking Global Equities, LP, and Global Opportunities. He also owned investments of between $6-30 million in Viking Global Equities, LP, and Global Opportunities.
His role as a director for the Viking Foundation keeps him “in close proximity with the affairs of Viking investments and its investments in Moderna,” Saint-George argued.
For instance, while Komitee sat on the Viking Foundation board voting to invest billions into Viking Global Equities, Viking increased its holdings to 115 million shares or 9.7% of Ginkgo Bioworks, a company that works closely with Moderna.
After his dismissal of the vaccine case, she appealed to the judge to recuse himself voluntarily before filing her judicial misconduct complaint.
Saint-George wrote, “Your Honor’s extrajudicial knowledge regarding whether the Moderna mRNA vaccine technology complied with FDA guidelines for DNA vaccines and whether the Moderna mRNA could meet OSHA regulatory standards to prevent the transmission of the Covid-19 as an airborne hazards also automatically disqualified Your Honor because Your Honor possessed extrajudicial knowledge of facts as to whether the Moderna vaccine was ‘necessary.'”
Just as he refused to recuse himself in the Watson case, Judge Komitee declined to recuse himself, letting the dismissal stand.
A Call for Impeachment
Based on Federal Rule 28 US Code 455, judges must recuse themselves when a judge has personal knowledge of disputed evidentiary facts concerning a case and when the judge’s impartiality might reasonably be questioned, particularly when the judge has a financial interest in the outcome of the case.
Earlier this year, the 2nd Circuit threw out the dismissal of an antitrust lawsuit accusing 10 banks of overcharging investors by billions of dollars of corporate bonds for much less cause than what is alleged against Judge Komitee in the Watson or the vaccine case.
The 2nd Circuit ruled the trial judge should have recused himself, because his wife owned $15,000 in stock in one of the banks named in the lawsuit.
The 2nd Circuit said that while US District Judge Lewis Liman “almost certainly unknowingly” had a conflict of interest, his partiality could be questioned because his wife’s ownership of Bank of America stock created an “appearance of impropriety.”
Saint-George says it goes a lot further. She claims Komitee has committed felony crimes by his concealment and is seeking his impeachment and possible criminal prosecution.
“Judge Komitee’s subversive deception calls into question whether there are more cases from which Judge Komitee should have been disqualified from and whether he is capable of ever providing unbiased rulings in any case, but in particular any case involving Moderna and any vaccine mandate case that comes before him,” she said in her complaint.
Frank Parlato is an investigative journalist, media strategist, publisher, and legal consultant.
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I think it was 3 trillion dollars tossed up in the air for people to catch, if they were paying attention. Pretty much if you were a lawyer or in the field of law you were a winner.
The vaccine us deadly poison!!