Embattled American lawyer and politician; Andrew Cuomo, has been ordered by the New York State Ethics Commission on Tuesday to pay more than $5 million in compensation for a book he wrote in 2020 about his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Joint Commission on Public Ethics voted 11-2 on a proposal to repay Cuomo within 30 days, which he earned from the sale of his 2020 book, “American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the Covid-19 Pandemic.”

The disgraced former New York Governor who resigned in August over sexual-harassment allegations has been criticized for using public resources, including state activists, to write the book. According to tax documents, the lucrative book contract increased Cuomo’s net income more than fivefold to $1.5 million in 2020, from just over $280,000 in 2019, according to tax documents.

The resolution said such repayment was necessary because Cuomo isn’t “legally entitled to retain compensation” he received from the book’s publication because he “lacked legal authority to engage in an outside activity.”

The panel voted last month to revoke the approval it had granted Cuomo for the book’s publication, arguing he’d violated the conditions of that approval, which included requirements that he write the book on his own personal time, without using state resources.

Cuomo’s lawyer immediately vowed to fight the demand for repayment.

Cuomo’s attorney Jim McGuire called the decision “unconstitutional” and said the ethic board’s actions “appear to be driven by political interests rather than the facts and the law,” McGuire said in a statement. “Should they seek to enforce this action, we’ll see them in court.”

Among other reasons for reversing the approval, JCOPE cited misleading claims by Cuomo’s lawyer that no New York government employees would help to write the book.

Investigators have found that government workers were aiding Cuomo with the project at the time his lawyer made the promise last year.

“Contrary to the representations made on behalf of Governor Cuomo, and disclosed to the Commission, State property, resources, and personnel, including staff volunteers, were used in connection with the preparation, writing, editing, and publication of the Book,” JCOPE said in a resolution last month.

The board also cited the fact that the book contract had been withheld from JCOPE before approval was issued.