Gov pals e-‘nailed’
Celebrated before Buff bids put out: feds
The men accused of corrupting Gov. Cuomo’s Buffalo Billion economic-development program by rigging bids were congratulating themselves on their “partnership” months before the process for choosing contractors kicked off, e-mails introduced in at their Manhattan federal trial on Tuesday showed.
“I am looking forward to our partnership to help advance Gov. Cuomo’s innovation-driven economic prospects,” Cuomo’s “economic guru” Alain Kaloyeros wrote in one e-mail to an official of construction company Cor Development in July 2013 — well before the search for companies to build in Buffalo and Syracuse using state money was made official.
“I am truly grateful for the opportunity to meet with you and work with you in the future,” Cor executive Steven Aiello responded.
The e-mail exchange was facilitated by corrupt lobbyist Todd Howe, who has pleaded guilty to accepting bribes from developers seeking state work, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors have said the e-mails will clinch their case against the four defendants they say rigged bids for hundreds of millions of dollars in government construction contracts.
Also on trial is Joseph Gerardi of Cor and Louis Ciminelli of LPC-iminelli.
The defense Tuesday focused on undermining the government’s theory that Kaloyeros rigged bids in order to stay on Cuomo’s good side by showing that the two were already close by 2013, when the alleged bid-rigging started.
Under cross-examination, New York First Deputy Mayor Dean Fuleihan, who was working with Kaloyeros at SUNY in 2013, said he got the impression from Kaloyeros that he and the governor were on great terms.
“My sense from conversations was that Dr. Kaloyeros felt secure in that relationship,” Fuleihan told the jury.
“My perception was that it was positive . . . based on announcements that the college was making that the governor was participating in,” Fuleihan said.