USC Paid Former Medical-School Dean, Accused of Drug-Fueled Double Life, Nearly $1 Million in Severance

Following a 2017 bombshell report in the Los Angeles Times on illicit drug use by the University of Southern California’s onetime medical-school dean, it took less than a week for USC to announce that it would strip Carmen A. Puliafito of tenure and dismiss him from the faculty. Nearly two years later, The Chronicle has learned how much it cost to secure those objectives: $850,000 in severance to Puliafito, according to the university’s most recent tax filings.