Gov. Cuomo speaks out about Buffalo Billions scheme

The allegations have also raised questions about the redevelopment of the Mercy Hospital site in Watertown. Attorneys for Percoco and Kaloyeros say they’re innocent.

U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara announced the charges on Thursday and said a ninth defendant, Todd Howe, another former Cuomo aide, pleaded guilty and was cooperating.

Andrew Cuomo doesn’t want to touch the bad bowl of ziti.

The governor spent the rest of the time assuring people his flagship development initiative, the Buffalo Billion, was not tainted. “He comes out of this as noncorrupt and in a position to root out corruption”.

Cuomo said on Friday that efforts to revitalize Buffalo and other upstate areas – which had been run by Kaloyeros through two nonprofits that were arms of SUNY Poly – would now by run Empire State Development president and CEO Howard Zemsky, a prominent Buffalo developer who serves the state for an annual salary of $1. Their downfalls shook Albany, yet prompted only modest ethics reforms during this year’s legislative session. Not only has he established the Buffalo Billion and installed Zemsky atop the ESDC, but he selected former Congresswoman Kathy Hochul-a native of the Western New York city-as his lieutenant governor when running for re-election in 2014. “The problem is he’s gotten other maps before and he’s never used them”. But a close confidant of the governor, and a man with Buffalo ties, will.

“The central point of my administration has always been about public integrity and zero tolerance for any waste, fraud or abuse”, Cuomo said in Buffalo. They said Kaloyeros retained Howe to help him and Howe in turn solicited and received bribes. “Every time there’s another headline, there’s another cut on the body politic, and a little more trust has bled out”, Cuomo said.

Though rarely mentioned in the federal complaint, Cuomo hovers in the background of the narrative of his former aides’ misdeeds – and some of the more embarrassing revelations.

Governor Cuomo: “It was a systematic issue”.

An executive at Competitive Power Ventures, Peter Galbraith Kelly Jr., is accused in the complaint of conspiracy and paying bribes to Percoco.

Howe, a consultant for the two companies, set up bank accounts and a shell company to funnel bribes, including payments to Percoco’s wife, the complaint said. “You go to Rochester, and you say ‘Is Buffalo better, ‘ they say yes”.

ALI: Are you anxious other staffers will be implicated? Lay it on heAvy Herbie! Percoco’s attorney says Percoco will be exonerated.

The governor’s name came up again in September 2015, according to the complaint, when Aiello complained to Howe that he had not been invited to attend Cuomo’s events during a planned trip to Syracuse.

The coziness depicted in the complaint makes it hard for some to believe that Cuomo did not know something was amiss. He said afterward he knew nothing about the allegations in advance.

For his part, the governor barred any contact in his administration with Howe and Percoco after news broke about Bharara’s investigation in late April.

Cuomo acknowledged the charges were “very serious” and “breathtaking”. “If anything, a friend should be held to an even higher standard”.