Power Brokers In Western NY "Rattled" By Bharara Probe Into Cuomo's Buffalo Billion Project

The Buffalo News:

Word that Bharara is looking at the Buffalo Billion, which Cuomo has hailed for bringing jobs and construction activity to the region, has rattled power brokers across Western New York. In interviews this week, political insiders either expressed little knowledge of Bharara’s activities or said they were intentionally avoiding attempts to find out any information about the probe.

McGuire is the only executive of a company with a Buffalo Billion contract to directly comment on the matter. Others, including several that bid or expressed initial interest in bidding on the original Buffalo Billion request for proposal in 2013, have not returned calls seeking comment.

Recipients of Bharara’s subpoenas, which seek information about the Buffalo Billion, include SUNY Polytechnic, which is run from Albany by Alain E. Kaloyeros, a politically savvy public higher education official who has lobbied four New York governors in a row to invest mightily in his nanotechnology college a few miles from the State Capitol.

Kaloyeros, whom Cuomo chose for a sizable role in the Buffalo Billion, has declined to comment.

The Buffalo Billion is ultimately overseen by Empire State Development, the state’s main economic-development agency. A spokesman for the agency could not immediately say Wednesday whether state economic-development officials have received any subpoenas from federal prosecutors about the Buffalo Billion.

Lots of "no comment" or un-returned calls for comment in Buffalo and Albany.

Lots of scared power brokers.

The only people talking are the McGuire CEO and Cuomo.

Who knows, maybe nothing untoward was done here and everybody's fine.

But if not...if Bharara sticks to the pattern, we go another month to two months before we get another leak that is ominous sounding for someone (Kaloyeros?  Ciminelli? Both?), then some criminal charges get announced.

No wonder they're mostly scared silent in Buffalo and Albany.

Would be interesting to know what Cuomo is really saying, in private, away from the cameras and reporters, where he has been mostly trying to downplay this thing and pawn whatever responsibility there is for it onto SUNY simultaneously.

Especially since there is one other pattern here besides the Bharara leak, leak, indict...pattern.

There's the contractor's donate, donate, get contract, donate...pattern too - with that money ending up directly in Cuomo's campaign coffers.