Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District
of New York, Adam Cohen, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Buffalo Field
Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”), and Shantelle P.
Kitchen, the Special Agent in Charge of the New York Field Office of the
Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation (“IRS-CI”), announced
today the unsealing of a Complaint charging eight defendants with
federal public corruption offenses, including Joseph Percoco, the former
Executive Deputy Secretary to the Governor of the State of New York,
and Alain Kaloyeros, the President of SUNY Polytechnic Institute (“SUNY
Poly”). The charges arise from two separate but overlapping schemes
involving bribery, corruption, and fraud in the award of hundreds of
millions of dollars in New York State contracts and other official state
actions.
In the first scheme, Percoco is charged with soliciting and accepting
more than $315,000 in bribes in return for taking official state action
to benefit an energy company (the “Energy Company”) and a
Syracuse-based real estate developer (the “Syracuse Developer”). As
part of this scheme, Peter Galbraith Kelly, Jr., an executive at the
Energy Company, and Steven Aiello and Joseph Gerardi, executives at the
Syracuse Developer, are charged with orchestrating the payment of bribes
to Percoco.
In the second scheme, Aiello and Gerardi, along with Louis Ciminelli, Michael Laipple and Kevin Schuler, who are executives at a
Buffalo-based development company (the “Buffalo Developer”), are charged
with paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes to Todd Howe, a
consultant hired by Kaloyeros to help administer the state’s “Buffalo
Billion” initiative and related programs. As the charges allege, in
exchange for the bribe payments, Howe and Kaloyeros secretly rigged the
bids on lucrative state-funded contracts to ensure that the Syracuse
Developer and the Buffalo Developer would win the contracts.
All eight defendants charged in the Complaint were arrested this
morning. Percoco, Kelly, and Kaloyeros are scheduled to be presented
later today before U.S. Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn in Manhattan
federal court. Aiello and Gerardi are scheduled to appear later today
in federal court in Syracuse. Ciminelli, Laipple and Schuler are
scheduled to appear later today in federal court in Buffalo.
Also unsealed today is the guilty plea of Todd Howe in connection
with his participation in both corruption schemes described above. Howe pled guilty pursuant to an Information before U.S. District Judge
Richard M. Berman on September 20, 2016, and is cooperating with the
Government.
U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said: “Today’s charges shine a light on
yet another sordid side of the show-me-the money culture that has so
plagued Albany. As alleged, Joseph Percoco, the former Executive Deputy
Secretary to the Governor, was on the take. And pervasive corruption
and fraud allegedly infected signature state development projects like
the Buffalo Billion program. The bids allegedly were rigged, the
results preordained; companies got rich and the public got bamboozled. As alleged in the Complaint, it turns out the state legislature does not
have a monopoly on crass corruption in New York.”
Click here to read the full statement
Source: United States Attorney's Office, Southern District of New York
“I learned this morning of the charges filed by the U.S. Attorney’s office that include a former member of my administration. If the allegations are true, I am saddened and profoundly disappointed. I hold my administration to the highest level of integrity. I have zero tolerance for abuse of the public trust from anyone. If anything, a friend should be held to an even higher standard. Like my father before me, I believe public integrity is paramount. This sort of breach, if true, should be and will be punished.
“SUNY has rightly relieved Alain Kaloyeros from his duties and has suspended him without pay, effective immediately.
“This matter is now in the hands of the court, which is exactly where it belongs. My administration will continue to be fully cooperative in the matter as we have been since it began.”
Source: Press Office, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo
Statement from Governor Andrew Cuomo
“I learned this morning of the charges filed by the U.S. Attorney’s office that include a former member of my administration. If the allegations are true, I am saddened and profoundly disappointed. I hold my administration to the highest level of integrity. I have zero tolerance for abuse of the public trust from anyone. If anything, a friend should be held to an even higher standard. Like my father before me, I believe public integrity is paramount. This sort of breach, if true, should be and will be punished.
“SUNY has rightly relieved Alain Kaloyeros from his duties and has suspended him without pay, effective immediately.
“This matter is now in the hands of the court, which is exactly where it belongs. My administration will continue to be fully cooperative in the matter as we have been since it began.”
Source: Press Office, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo
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