NY Contractors' Pay to Play Trial is Set for June

The second phase of the federal bribery, corruption and fraud trial against executives at two New York state contractors will begin June 11. The proceeding follows a recently concluded trial in the pay-to-play scandal that has links to Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D).

In March, Steven Aiello, president of COR Development, Syracuse, was found guilty of wire fraud, but in-house counsel Joseph Gerardi was found not guilty. Both also were found not guilty of paying bribes to Cuomo aide Joseph Percoco for help on project funding and labor rules, says Geoffrey Berman, U.S. attorney in New York City. Percoco was found guilty of wire fraud for the projects, but not for soliciting bribes. Aiello, who faces up to 20 years in prison, will be sentenced later this year.

Set for trial are former executives at Buffalo-based contractor LPCiminelli, who were accused in 2016 of bribery, corruption and fraud involving state contracts. Former LPCiminelli CEO and Chairman Louis Ciminelli, President Michael Laipple and Senior Vice President Kevin Schuler were indicted for paying Alain Kaloyeros, the since-fired president of SUNY Polytechnic Institute in Albany, to secretly rig bids for state-funded development projects. He also will be tried.

LPCiminelli won the construction manager award on what became a $750-million project near Buffalo, N.Y., in New York’s Buffalo Billion economic development program. A Ciminelli spokeswoman did not respond to a question regarding the possibility that the case could be settled before trial.

The COR executives will also be tried, related to alleged bid-rigging for project awards in central New York. COR has sued New York state for delaying more than $500,000 in construction payments because of the indictments.

Mary B. Powers has reported on engineering and construction issues in the global energy and environmental sectors for more than 30 years from Washington, D.C. and Birmingham, Ala. She formerly wrote for the Platt's group of energy sector publications under McGraw Hill and S&P Global that included Inside Energy and Megawatt Daily, and was state editor for the Lexington, Ky., Herald Leader. Mary has a master’s degree in journalism from The American University.

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