Percoco asks to keep $95,000 in payments
Former Cuomo aide will be sentenced Thursday afternoon
Lawyers for Joe Percoco, the former top Cuomo aide who is scheduled to be sentenced Thursday for his part in a payto-play scheme, asked a federal judge to allow him to keep $95,000 of the roughly $287,000 in payments his household received from an energy company seeking official favors.
The money was ostensibly paid to Percoco’s wife, Lisa Toscano-percoco, by Competitive Power Ventures, which is developing a controversial natural gas-fired power plant in Orange County.
At trial, prosecutors successfully depicted Toscano-percoco’s work on CPV’S educational initiative as a “low-show” job that served as a pretext to conceal the illicit payments to Percoco, who at the time was Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s executive deputy secretary. Testimony showed the arrangement alarmed executives within the company, and included criticism of Toscanopercoco’s level of effort.
In a letter sent Monday to U.S. District Judge Valerie Caproni, Percoco’s attorney Barry Bohrer said Toscano-percoco “provided lawful and bona fide services to CPV,” as demonstrated in trial testimony describing classes taught and curricula developed.
Bohrer argued that the fair market value of her services, based on the salary CPV paid to another consultant, was $2,500 a month instead of the $7,500 a month Toscano-percoco was paid.
In a letter to Caproni dated
Friday, federal prosecutors asked her to impose a forfeiture order of $320,000, covering the entire value of the payments from CPV as well as $35,000 in payments from Syracusebased COR Development that were funneled through Potomac Strategies LLC, which was controlled by consultant Todd Howe, and also paid to Percoco’s wife. Howe — like Percoco a longtime confidant of Cuomo — pleaded guilty to felony charges in September 2016.
Bohrer countered that Percoco’s forfeiture should be $225,000 — $320,000 minus the $95,000 that he claims Toscanopercoco actually deserved for her labors.
Percoco, slated to appear for sentencing before Caproni at 2 p.m. Thursday, was Cuomo’s campaign manager for his 2010 and 2014 gubernatorial runs. He was found guilty in March of honest services fraud, conspiracy to commit honest services fraud, and solicitation of bribes and gratuities. He was acquitted of three other counts, including extortion.
Prosecutors are seeking a jail sentence of at least five years, while Percoco’s lawyers seek a sentence of no more than two years.
This fall will bring many more sentencing appearances for officials and businessmen convicted in the Percoco trial and the subsequent trial over bid-rigging on projects overseen by Albanybased SUNY Polytechnic Institute. They include:
■ CPV executive Peter Galbraith Kelly, who orchestrated the hiring of Percoco’s wife and pleaded guilty to wire fraud after juries failed to reach a verdict on his charges. He’s scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 16.
■ Buffalo developer Louis Ciminelli and COR’S Joseph Gerardi, convicted in the SUNY Poly trial, will learn their punishments Nov. 28 and Dec. 6, respectively.
■ COR executive Steve Aiello, convicted in both trials, will be sentenced Nov. 29.
■ Alain Kaloyeros, the founding president of SUNY Poly, will be sentenced Dec. 11.
■ Howe, the consultant who connected the players in both sets of schemes, is tentatively slated to be sentenced Nov. 2.