Joseph Percoco, a former aide to New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo, has been charged with extortion and soliciting bribes by federal prosecutors in a wide-ranging case the US said involved the awarding of hundreds of millions of dollars in state contracts. Percoco’s attorney Barry Bohrer, a partner at Schulte Roth & Zabel, blasted the prosecution as an “overreach of classic proportions”.
Advertisement
Early Thursday afternoon, Cuomo issued a statement on the federal charges. Percoco is also accused of lying when he told CPV that he had received an ethics opinion from Cuomo’s office approving his wife’s hiring. Alain Kaloyeros, the president of Polytechnic, is also charged.
The U.S. Attorney announced the charges at a noon press conference on Thursday.
The complaint also describes another bid-rigging and bribery arrangement: this one involving State University of NY head Alain Kaloyeros, Buffalo developer-and Cuomo mega-donor-Louis Ciminelli and two executives at Ciminelli’s company.
There’s Herb – the affectionate nickname given to Joe Percoco, a former aide to Cuomo that the governor has referred to as a brother.
“The companies got rich, and the public got bamboozled”, Preet Bharara, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of NY, told reporters during a news conference at his Manhattan office. In one email exchange from 2011, Howe urged Percoco “to do the right thing” in regards to helping an energy company win the ability to sell power to NY.
Howe’s lawyer, Richard Morvillo, didn’t immediately reply to phone and e-mail messages seeking comment. He was Andrew Cuomo’s $156,000-a-year executive secretary when he resigned in 2014 to lead Cuomo’s re-election campaign. But if the charges are proved true – Howe already has pleaded guilty to extortion, bribery and wire fraud – the governor will have to answer hard questions about his judgment and oversight. I have zero tolerance for abuse of the public trust from anyone.
“The fact that New York State Democrats will be wearing this will be felt all down the ballot”, he said. “If anything, a friend should be held to an even higher standard”.
He is believed to be cooperating with investigators in the case after pleading guilty to fraud charges, the New York Post reported. Authorities say Percoco solicited bribes from companies involved in state economic development projects. Thick as a pulp novela and nearly as tawdry, the 80-page criminal complaint unsealed Thursday morning shows Cuomo’s reputed “right-hand man” Joseph Percoco giving his best audition for “The Sopranos”, in referring to bribe payments as “zitti”.
Also charged in the complaint are two executives at COR Development – Steven Aiello and Joseph Girardi – and three executives at LPCiminelli: Michael Laipple, Kevin Schuler and CEO Louis Ciminelli.
Today, Kaloyeros was one of nine people named in a criminal complaint from federal prosecutors charging bid-rigging, bribery and corruption. Those two companies are COR Development, a real-estate development firm that was awarded several state contracts, and Competitive Power Ventures Holdings LLC, an electric-power company that needed state approval to build a power plant in the Hudson Valley.
Advertisement
“Everybody has focused on Cuomo from the very beginning because it was all rolling uphill”, Caputo said.
