Joseph Percoco, VP Madison Square Garden
Photo: AP
[From article]
A former top Cuomo aide who is under criminal investigation for “consulting’’ with companies doing business with the state told potential clients he had the administration’s OK for the work — despite never receiving it, The Post has been told.
Madison Square Garden Executive Vice President Joseph Percoco, who until last January was Gov. Cuomo’s executive deputy secretary and one of his closest friends, “told various clients or potential clients that he had approval from the governor’s counsel’s office to work for them,’’ said a source close to the situation.
“It turned out the counsel’s office did no such thing. It didn’t give any approval,” the source said. “And Joe never gave the clients anything to prove what he said, so the clients didn’t get anything in writing.’’
Public records show that Percoco, who left the state payroll for several months in early 2014 to run Cuomo’s re-election campaign, said he received as much as $125,000 in still-unexplained “consulting’’ fees during that year from two companies, COR Development of Syracuse and Albany-based CHA Consulting, which have longstanding dealings and tens of millions of dollars in contracts with the state.
Percoco’s income from the companies didn’t become public until late last month, when US Attorney Preet Bharara served a subpoena on Cuomo’s office seeking records relating to Percoco’s work, as well as the work performed for those and other companies by influential lobbyist Todd Howe, a Percoco friend and longtime associate of both Andrew and former Gov. Mario Cuomo.
Howe, who sources said helped arrange the consulting work for Percoco, was fired last week by a longtime employer — Albany-based law/lobbying firm Whiteman, Osterman & Hanna — after being barred days earlier by Cuomo from having any contact with the state government.
[. . .]
The subpoena, excerpts of which were obtained by The Post, sought “phone logs, visitor logs, calendar entries between January 2012 and present that show meetings with any’’ entities on a list of 26 individuals and companies.
The subpoena also demanded information on “any actions taken by” Percoco, Secretary to the Governor William Mulrow, state Operations Director James Malatras, Buffalo-area Democratic operative Peter Cutler and other Cuomo aides related to the companies for which Percoco and Howe worked, as well as for several other companies connected to the governor’s high-profile “Buffalo Billion’’ economic-development efforts.
It also seeks “any documents concerning’’ two not-for-profit economic-development companies set up in conjunction with SUNY Polytechnic Institute’s Colleges of Nanoscale Science and Engineering and its president, Dr. Alain Kaloyeros, a key “Buffalo Billion’’ adviser.
Sources in the Cuomo administration said the governor appears “increasingly nervous and anxious’’ about Bharara’s probe, and some noted that Cuomo has almost completely disappeared from public view during the past weeks as the scandal began to unfold
http://nypost.com/2016/05/08/cuomo-crony-lied-to-potential-clients-said-he-had-governors-ok-to-work/
Cuomo crony lied to potential clients — said he had governor’s OK to work
By Fredric U. Dicker
New York Post
May 8, 2016 | 11:57pm
* * *
http://nypost.com/2016/05/09/fbi-raids-homes-of-two-cuomo-cronies-amid-corruption-probe/
FBI raids homes of two Cuomo cronies amid corruption probe
By Kaja Whitehouse, Kirstan Conley and Bruce Golding
New York Post
May 9, 2016 | 3:33am
* * *
http://nypost.com/2016/05/02/investigation-of-confidant-could-be-a-career-killer-for-cuomo/
Investigation of confidant could be a career-killer for Cuomo
By Fredric U. Dicker
New York Post
May 2, 2016 | 12:08am
[From article]
A former top Cuomo aide who is under criminal investigation for “consulting’’ with companies doing business with the state told potential clients he had the administration’s OK for the work — despite never receiving it, The Post has been told.
Madison Square Garden Executive Vice President Joseph Percoco, who until last January was Gov. Cuomo’s executive deputy secretary and one of his closest friends, “told various clients or potential clients that he had approval from the governor’s counsel’s office to work for them,’’ said a source close to the situation.
“It turned out the counsel’s office did no such thing. It didn’t give any approval,” the source said. “And Joe never gave the clients anything to prove what he said, so the clients didn’t get anything in writing.’’
Public records show that Percoco, who left the state payroll for several months in early 2014 to run Cuomo’s re-election campaign, said he received as much as $125,000 in still-unexplained “consulting’’ fees during that year from two companies, COR Development of Syracuse and Albany-based CHA Consulting, which have longstanding dealings and tens of millions of dollars in contracts with the state.
Percoco’s income from the companies didn’t become public until late last month, when US Attorney Preet Bharara served a subpoena on Cuomo’s office seeking records relating to Percoco’s work, as well as the work performed for those and other companies by influential lobbyist Todd Howe, a Percoco friend and longtime associate of both Andrew and former Gov. Mario Cuomo.
Howe, who sources said helped arrange the consulting work for Percoco, was fired last week by a longtime employer — Albany-based law/lobbying firm Whiteman, Osterman & Hanna — after being barred days earlier by Cuomo from having any contact with the state government.
[. . .]
The subpoena, excerpts of which were obtained by The Post, sought “phone logs, visitor logs, calendar entries between January 2012 and present that show meetings with any’’ entities on a list of 26 individuals and companies.
The subpoena also demanded information on “any actions taken by” Percoco, Secretary to the Governor William Mulrow, state Operations Director James Malatras, Buffalo-area Democratic operative Peter Cutler and other Cuomo aides related to the companies for which Percoco and Howe worked, as well as for several other companies connected to the governor’s high-profile “Buffalo Billion’’ economic-development efforts.
It also seeks “any documents concerning’’ two not-for-profit economic-development companies set up in conjunction with SUNY Polytechnic Institute’s Colleges of Nanoscale Science and Engineering and its president, Dr. Alain Kaloyeros, a key “Buffalo Billion’’ adviser.
Sources in the Cuomo administration said the governor appears “increasingly nervous and anxious’’ about Bharara’s probe, and some noted that Cuomo has almost completely disappeared from public view during the past weeks as the scandal began to unfold
http://nypost.com/2016/05/08/cuomo-crony-lied-to-potential-clients-said-he-had-governors-ok-to-work/
Cuomo crony lied to potential clients — said he had governor’s OK to work
By Fredric U. Dicker
New York Post
May 8, 2016 | 11:57pm
* * *
http://nypost.com/2016/05/09/fbi-raids-homes-of-two-cuomo-cronies-amid-corruption-probe/
FBI raids homes of two Cuomo cronies amid corruption probe
By Kaja Whitehouse, Kirstan Conley and Bruce Golding
New York Post
May 9, 2016 | 3:33am
* * *
http://nypost.com/2016/05/02/investigation-of-confidant-could-be-a-career-killer-for-cuomo/
Investigation of confidant could be a career-killer for Cuomo
By Fredric U. Dicker
New York Post
May 2, 2016 | 12:08am
* * *
http://nypost.com/2016/05/05/shady-cuomo-pal-received-nearly-100-financing-on-815k-home/
‘Shady’ Cuomo pal received nearly 100% financing on $815K home
By Kirstan Conley, Reuven Fenton and Bruce Golding
New York Post
May 5, 2016 | 12:55am
* * *
http://nypost.com/2016/05/06/cuomo-linked-lobbyist-fired-by-law-firm-amid-federal-probe/
Cuomo-linked lobbyist fired by law firm amid federal probe
By Kirstan Conley and Aaron Short
New York Post
May 6, 2016 | 4:11pm
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