Gov’s ex-aide convicted in ‘ziti’ bribe case
Former top Gov. Cuomo aide Joseph Percoco was convicted Tuesday in a pay-to-play corruption case that featured mob lingo lifted from “The Sopranos” and testimony from a star prosecution witness who was busted midway through his testimony.
In a wildly mixed verdict, the Manhattan federal jury found Percoco guilty of three felonies in a scheme to pocket more than $300,000 in bribes, but cleared him of three other crimes.
The split decision caused Percoco to initially breathe a sigh of relief when he was acquitted of the first charge — then bow his head when the foreman began pronouncing him guilty of two others.
The surprise verdict came midway through the eighth day of deliberations and a day after the panel sent out its second deadlock note saying, “We remain unable to reach a unanimous verdict.”
Percoco, 47, now faces up to 50 years in prison at his sentencing, which Judge Valerie Caproni scheduled for June 11.
Cuomo — who in a 2015 eulogy to his late father, former Gov. Mario Cuomo, likened Percoco to a brother — called the verdict “personally painful.”
“While I am sad for Joe Percoco’s young daughters, who will have to deal with this pain, I echo the message of the verdict — there is no tolerance for any violation of the public trust,” Cuomo said in a statement.
Cuomo, a Democrat who is seeking a third term in November, added, “We must learn from what happened and put additional safeguards in place to secure the public trust. Anything less is unacceptable.”
Percoco, who remains free on $100,000 bond, said he was “disappointed” by the verdict but thankful for his lawyers and the relatives and friends who “have stood by me through this entire process, and I look forward to them all standing by me as we go forward.”
Asked if he had spoken to Cuomo, Percoco said, “I just walked out of the building.”
Defense lawyer Barry Bohrer said he would mount an appeal.
“There is an inconsistency in the verdict as we read it,’’ Bohrer said. “We will pursue all available options.”
The evidence against Percoco included damning e-mails in which the feds said he used the word “ziti” — gangster slang for cash on HBO’s “The Sopranos” — to refer to his illegal payoffs.
The roller-coaster trial featured seven days of testimony from ex-lobbyist and Percoco pal Todd Howe, who in 2016 secretly pleaded guilty to conspiracy, bribery and other charges and agreed to cooperate with authorities.
Howe, 57, was arrested midtrial after admitting during cross-examination that he tried to scam his way out of paying for a $600 stay at The Waldorf-Astoria hotel while he was negotiating his deal.
“I don’t think anybody thought he was trustworthy,” juror Stacy Gellman said while leaving the courthouse.
Percoco was convicted of two counts of conspiracy in scams involving two companies — Competitive Power Ventures of Maryland and Syracuse-based COR Development Co. — doing business with the state.
But while Percoco was convicted of soliciting bribes from CPV — which gave his wife, Lisa, a $90,000-a-year, “low- show” job — he was acquitted of a similar charge involving $35,000 in cash from COR.
He also was cleared of two extortion raps in both schemes.
Percoco’s “especially offensive misconduct” involved “selling something priceless that was not his to sell — the sacred obligation to honestly and faithfully serve the citizens of New York,’’ said interim Manhattan US Attorney Geoffrey Berman.
Good-government groups and Cuomo’s political opponents quickly seized on the verdict to blast the governor and the rampant corruption in Albany that has led to a series of convictions of state lawmakers in recent years.
“The governor has to redeem himself,” John Kaehny of the Reinvent Albany reform group said. “This is a damning, damning indictment of his administration.”
In addition to the split verdict against Percoco, the sevenwoman, five-man jury convicted COR President Steven Aiello of conspiracy — but acquitted him of bribery and lying to the feds. COR general counsel Joseph Gerardi was acquitted on three similar charges.
Both he and Aiello still face another corruption trial in June involving Cuomo’s signature “Buffalo Billion” revitalization project.
Meanwhile, the jury deadlocked on bribery and conspiracy charges against former CPV exec Peter Galbraith Kelly Jr. — even while convicting Percoco on related raps.
The feds wouldn’t say whether they would seek a retrial for Kelly, 53.
Make no mistake: Tuesday’s conviction of onetime top aide and longtime confidante Joseph Percoco on multiple felony corruption charges is as much a reflection on Gov. Cuomo as on Percoco himself.
A federal jury found Percoco guilty of conspiracy to commit honest-services fraud and soliciting $315,000 in bribes plus a lowshow job for his wife from two companies doing state business. He faces up to 50 years behind bars.
For all the colorful testimony about “ziti” (Percoco’s TV-inspired term for the payoffs he got in exchange for official favors), this trial shone yet another troubling spotlight on Albany’s relentless pay-to-play culture.
And though Cuomo wasn’t charged with any wrongdoing, the trial did nothing to allay lingering suspicions that the governor condoned and even encouraged that shameful status quo.
Percoco, after all, was more than Cuomo’s closest confidante: The man he himself described as his father’s “third son” ran two of Cuomo’s campaigns and was known as his bare-knuckled chief political enforcer.
He enjoyed vast power, in other words — and, as prosecutor David Zhou said, he “sold out his influence” to the highest bidders.
Testimony also showed that Percoco continued to work out of Cuomo’s offices, both in Manhattan and Albany, long after he’d left the state payroll — and at times when the governor was present.
Percoco may have been the prosecutors’ immediate target, but the fallout from reams of lurid testimony involving dubious campaign fund-raising practices and ethical evasions can’t help but land on Cuomo.
And he faces more bad news: June will see the trial of Alain Kaloyeros, former president of SUNY Polytechnic, who’s charged in a bid-rigging scheme involving Cuomo’s pet Buffalo Billions project.
For years, Cuomo vowed to clean up corruption. Yet on his watch, New York has seen countless pols caught with dirty hands. And his promises proved truly hollow when he shuttered the Moreland Commission, which was probing corruption.
Just as Bridgegate ended Chris Christie’s presidential hopes, Cuomo may find that Joe Percoco just did the same to his.