On Thursday, federal prosecutors announced corruption charges against nine members of Governor Andrew Cuomo’s inner circle in connection with an alleged bribery and kickback scheme involving the much-lauded upstate NY economic development program known as the “Buffalo Billion”. The charges, which federal prosecutors will formally announce later Thursday, stem from an investigation into the “Buffalo Billion” – one of the governor’s key programs meant to draw businesses to upstate NY to revive the flagging economy.
Advertisement
“You heard the governor in his father’s eulogy, how Joe Percoco was like a third son and was so close to the family”.
Some of the most serious allegations in a Manhattan federal court criminal complaint were brought against Joseph Percoco, formerly Cuomo’s executive deputy secretary and one of his most loyal advisers.
Percoco was known in state government as Andrew Cuomo’s “enforcer”.
Kaloyeros masterminded much of Cuomo’s vast upstate economic development programs.
Key figures in the case are Cuomo’s “right hand man” Joseph Percoco and former top aide Todd Howe, who would use the term “ziti” to describe payoffs made by companies seeking state contracts, according to NBC.
Both firms have extensive business with the state.
Here’s more about the charges against two of them, Steven F. Aiello and Joseph Gerardi, executives at the major Syracuse-area development firm COR Development.
The complaint is also full of some colorful details, including the fact that Percoco referred to cash payments as “ziti”, which was lifted from the HBO series “The Sopranos”, which, incidentally, was about mobsters. It read, in part: “If the allegations are true, I am saddened and profoundly disappointed”. Cuomo has distanced himself from Percoco and Howe since the spring, when word of the widening federal probe got out.
“If anyone did anything wrong I will be the first to throw the book at them”, Cuomo said on May 10th.
At the news conference Adam Cohen, the FBI Special Agent-in-Charge of the Buffalo Field Office that led the investigation, recalled getting his start in government work while growing up on Long Island.
At least nine people, including a former aide to Gov. Andrew Cuomo, are facing charges in connection with a “wide-ranging investigation” into alleged corruption. State charges are expected against him as well.
Cuomo released a statement condemning the alleged pay-to-play schemes, saying, “I learned this morning of the charges filed by the U.S. Attorney’s office that include a former member of my administration”. COR’s selection as the Syracuse victor of the RFP yielded state nanotech development contracts worth $105 million, Bharara said.
The felony complaint alleges that Kaloyeros steered, or agreed to steer, the awarding of contracts to handpicked companies, including Nicolla’s Columbia Development. Percoco and seven others face 12 criminal counts – including conspiracy to commit fraud, extortion, soliciting and paying bribes and lying to federal agents.
Advertisement
The developers who received the contracts are among Cuomo’s top campaign contributors.
