Defendants (including Governor's secretary & Suny Polytechnic Institute prez) Charged

https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/nine-defendants-including-joseph-percoco-former-executive-deputy-secretary-governor-and

Department of Justice
U.S. Attorney’s Office
Southern District of New York

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Thursday, September 22, 2016

Nine Defendants, Including Joseph Percoco, Former Executive Deputy Secretary To The Governor, And Alain Kaloyeros, President Of Suny Polytechnic Institute, Charged With Federal Corruption And Fraud Offenses

Percoco Charged with Taking More than $315,000 in Bribes; Kaloyeros Charged with Fraud in Connection with the Buffalo Billion Program

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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.
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The PERCOCO Bribery Scheme

In the first scheme alleged in the Complaint, PERCOCO, who served as the Executive Deputy Secretary to the Governor between January 2012 and mid-2014, and again in 2015, is charged with abusing his official position and extensive influence within the Executive Branch of New York State (the “State”) by seeking and accepting bribe payments from executives at companies that were seeking benefits and business from the State, in exchange for PERCOCO’s use of his official authority and influence to benefit those companies.
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The “Buffalo Billion” Fraud and Bribery Scheme

The second scheme alleged in the Complaint involves bribery, corruption, and fraud in the award of contracts under the “Buffalo Billion” initiative and similar programs. In that scheme, executives at two companies, one of which was the Syracuse Developer, conspired with KALOYEROS and HOWE to deceive Fort Schuyler Management Corporation (“Fort Schuyler”), a State-funded entity charged with awarding State contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars, by secretly rigging the bidding process so that the contracts would be awarded to those two companies.
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