Columnists Goodwin & LeBrun: Cuomo Could Be Next

Two columnists, Michael Goodwin of the NY Post and Fred LeBrun of the Times-Union, weighed in this morning on the possibility of Governor Andrew Cuomo facing criminal charges like his buddies Shelly Silver and Dean Skelos.

First Goodwin looks at Cuomo's shutdown of the Moreland Commission:

As he geared up for re-election, Cuomo put his crime-fighter hat back on and finally convened a Moreland panel in 2013. He recruited an impressive array of law-enforcement officials, gave them a wide berth and promised they would be independent.

“It’s going to be a real follow-the-money investigation,” Cuomo told me then. “We want to see who gives you money, the legislation you introduce.”

When I expressed skepticism about his commitment, given his repeated retreats, he insisted this time was different, saying he was as “serious as a heart attack.”

But he wasn’t. As soon as the Legislature gave him modest ­ethics changes, he pulled the plug on Moreland.

That could be his undoing. The gumshoes he appointed with such flair had taken their assignment seriously and were aggressive, apparently too much so for the governor’s taste. Numerous accounts surfaced that his office intervened when probers focused on his donors and allies.

In response, Cuomo offered a series of defenses that grew ­increasingly bizarre. He started with denials and ended up insisting that the panel was never independent.

“It’s my commission. I can’t ‘interfere’ with it, because it is mine. It is controlled by me,” he told Crain’s magazine.

Fortunately, Bharara had a decidedly different view. He called the decision to prematurely disband the panel “difficult to ­understand” and told Moreland members in writing that it looked as if “investigations potentially significant to the public interest have been bargained away” in a deal among Cuomo, Silver and Skelos.

He seized Moreland’s investigative files in what amounted to a raid on its offices. When reports suggested that Cuomo aides ­solicited statements from panel leaders defending the governor, Bharara warned that such solicitations might “constitute obstruction of justice or tampering with witnesses.”

That, publicly at least, is where the investigation stands. Cuomo is using campaign funds to pay a criminal defense lawyer representing his office, and several of his aides hired their own counsel.

It is possible, of course, that the Silver and Skelos verdicts will be the end of Bharara’s campaign. It is also possible that they were the warm-up and the final act is about to unfold.

LeBrun focuses on Cuomo and his campaign donors:

Federal prosecutor Preet Bharara's outstanding work is a wonder to behold and still has a robust future, in spite of his rhetorical response to the Skelos conviction:

"The swift convictions of Sheldon Silver and Dean Skelos beg an important question: how many prosecutions will it take before Albany gives the people of New York the honest government they deserve?"

Compare that to Governor Andrew Cuomo's response to the same conviction. He, too, expressed confidence in our justice system, which should come as a great relief to Bharara. "However, more must be done and will be pursued as part of my legislative agenda. The convictions ... should be a wake-up call for the legislature and it must stop standing in the way of needed reforms."

Preet points a finger at Albany; Andrew points a finger at the Legislature.

Now, if there is one aspect of the Cuomo personality we can all agree on, it is that he is not clueless. He can try to divert attention to the Legislature, which certainly deserves plenty of the limelight. But he has to be fully aware of the implications of Bharara's reponse.

There is a truism in play that nothing happens of any significance in political Albany without Cuomo's involvement. This is also not wasted on the general public, as poll after poll has showed that the people see Cuomo as part of problem when it comes to corruption.

A question that's begged by the Cuomo response is that despite what he says about the Legislature, what will he do to change his own behavior so as to avoid Bharara's crosshairs? Perhaps we're already seeing clues in the predictable places. We have already seen shifts in the July filing of his campaign war chest which showed $12.7 million, a cesspool of vulnerability for the new standards being carved out by federal prosecutor Bharara. Reportedly, donations from Glenwood Management, lucrative for Cuomo in the past, are way down. Glenwood and its principals were a common denominator, and not in a good way, in both the Skelos and Silver trials.

Where campaign contributions are coming from may be on the move. However, the nearly $35 million plus Cuomo had in his campaign account heading into the last election is probably all a prosecutor might need, if anything was amiss. Last month, in an edifying piece by Chris Smith in New York Magazine, the considerable progress made in tracking corruption among legislators by the now defunct Moreland Commission is revealed. A high-tech security firm used to track money laundered by terrorist groups fittingly adapted software to the cause, so Bharara had a big head start on investigating Skelos and Silver. Presumably, Moreland investigators never looked at Cuomo. They didn't dare, nor was there an internal mandate although there should have been.

Bharara has no such constraints. He has been tactically and strategically brilliant in taking us to the present. With each conviction getting closer and closer to the top, what was once deemed impossible to imagine now has the public holding its breath for the seemingly inevitable.

If Cuomo eventually faces criminal charges, I'm not sure they'll be related to the Moreland shutdown that came in return for the budget deal and modest ethics reform package he got from now-convicted felons Silver and Skelos.

It is known that the executive director of the Moreland Commission, Regina Cacaterra, was feeding Cuomo's office everything that happened within the commission, sometimes in real time via her cell phone, so it's unlikely that Cuomo wouldn't have known that the commission was looking closely at Silver and his outside income.

The evidence that Bharara used against Silver came, in part, from the Moreland investigation, but the Skelos evidence did not (in fact, when it was first leaked that Bharara was investigating Skelos last January, an anonymous source who had served on the Moreland Commission told the Daily News that the commission had been building cases against "a number of" state Senate Republicans but Skelos was not one of them.)

Rather the evidence used against Skelos came from something that was learned as part of the Silver trial.

While there's a pretty good reason to suspect that Cuomo knew exactly what he was doing when he offered to shut down Moreland in return for the budget deal and the modest ethics reforms (i.e., he was saving Shelly Silver from trouble), it seemingly would be hard to prove that.

So the obstruction of justice angle in the Moreland shut down that Goodwin writes about, I have a difficult time seeing Cuomo face charges for that.

No, where I think Cuomo's got problems is with his donors and just what, exactly, they're telling Preet and his prosecutors in the investigations.

The first indication there was something Cuomo didn't want uncovered was when it was reported Larry Schwartz, his secretary at the time of the commission and liaison to all things Moreland, told the commission to "pull back" a subpoena they were preparing to send out to a TV ad company that the New York State Democratic Party and the Cuomo campaign had used.

Schwartz was also said to have interfered with a subpoena that the commission was going to send to REBNY, a real estate group made up in large measure of Cuomo donors, that was meant to get to the bottom of the connections between the group's political donations and a lucrative tax break the real estate industry received (Glenwood Management, the governor's bestest donor in those years, was a member of REBNY, and later was revealed to be tied up in the separate Silver and Skelos cases.)

The NY Times reported Schwartz was said to have told one of the three commission leaders on the phone "There will be no subpoena."

The Times also reported that a planned subpoena to a major retailer that received a tax break in the governor's budget received resistance from Cuomo's shill on the commission, Regina Calcaterra.


The question becomes, when Preet grabbed the Moreland files, did he follow up on the work that the Moreland commissioners were about to do looking into Cuomo's own donors/supporters and, if so, what did he learn?

He likely did follow up on some things, as two of the people who were granted non-prosecution agreements in the Silver and Skelos cases respectively were Cuomo donors (Charles Dorego, the political bagman for Glenwood Management, got an NPA for the Silver case and Skelos cases and Anthony Bonomo, the owner of a medical malpractice insurer that gave Dean Skelos' son Adam a cushy, almost-no show job in return for legislation that benefited his company, got one in the Skelos trial.)

Glenwood has given to Cuomo generously since he took office, either directly or through various LLC's.

Newsday reported no individual received more political donations from Glenwood and its various LLC's than Andrew Cuomo.

In addition, entities linked to and/or allied with Cuomo were recipients of Glenwood largesse. 

The Committee To Save NY, a shadowy PAC that supported the governor's agenda early in his first term before it was shut down when laws changed and it would have had to reveal who was behind it, received $500,000 from Glenwood and the State Democratic Party, an entity that essentially operates as a subsidiary of the Cuomo campaign, received $365,000 from Glenwood.

Anthony Bonomo too was a happy giver to Cuomo and admitted on the stand in the Skelos case that his son had gotten a state job after he donated to Cuomo's campaign.  Bonomo himself got picked to head the NYRA before he was forced to step down after his involvement in the Skelos mess was revealed.

So, we have some smoke already around Cuomo with the Glenwood and the Bonomo connections and Dorego and Bonomo already telling tales in the Silver and Skelos cases - it's not a stretch to think they're telling tales on Cuomo too.

Couple that with the subpoenas that went out in the Buffalo Billion Project probe to at least one of Cuomo's donors and the state entities involved in handling a bidding process that looks suspiciously like it was rigged to be won by Cuomo's donors, and you have a governor who is very, very vulnerable on the campaign donations issues.

I've had readers of the blog say in the past that there will be no explicit quid pro quo between anybody in the Cuomo administration and Cuomo's donors found over any of this, no smoking gun that can be used to arrest some member of the administration or Cuomo himself over the matter.

That's likely true.

Yet after Bharara nailed Shelly Silver with a seven count corruption conviction without proving an explicit quid pro quo between Shelly and his marks, you have to wonder how much the smoking gun matters.

As Tom Precious reported in the Buffalo News today:

The felony convictions of both former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and former Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos within less than two weeks will only further empower the U.S. attorney from the Southern District of Manhattan in his self-stated cause to clean up Albany, according to people in and outside government who have been watching the cases play out.

“I think any time a prosecutor wins a conviction in an important case, his credibility goes up,” said Salvatore Martoche, a former U.S. Attorney of the Western District of New York and former state appellate court judge.

“He’s got to feel that this is a mandate, and the public is going to give him every benefit of the doubt,” Martoche added.

Certainly juries are giving him the benefit of the doubt. 

While the Skelos case, with the wiretaps exposing explicit criminal activity getting played to the jury day after day, was seemingly going to end with a guilty verdict, the Silver case was much more subtle - one of the prosecution's witnesses even admitted there was no explicit quid pro quo agreement between himself and Shelly Silver in Silver's asbestos case referral scheme.

The defense argued that there was no crime there, this was just a "friends doing favors for friends" kind of thing, business as usual in Albany and really, nothing to concerned about.

Yet the jury didn't see it that way and Bharara got the conviction on all seven counts.

Interestingly enough, Cuomo used a Silveresque defense of his own when it came to talking about political donations and state contracts related to the Buffalo Billion Project:

Asked recently whether it's a problem that people getting state grants and contracts are contributing to his campaign fund, Cuomo noted that's not new.

"It hasn't been a problem for the past 100 years, so I don't know why it would be today," he said.

Will that defense work if Bharara decides to bring a case against Cuomo over his campaign donations and the state contracts his administration was handing out as part of the $1 billion dollar Buffalo Billion Project or the largesse the real estate industry showered upon him in return for tax breaks and other political gifts?

Hard to know, but a similar argument in the Silver trial - this stuff is just business as usual - didn't work with that jury.

Had Silver walked in his trial or gotten a mistrial (which seemed possible at one point with a juror complaining she wasn't getting along with other jurors), Bharara would have suffered a setback for whatever other cases he was pursuing.

But as the Precious article points out, the Silver slam dunk, along with the Skelos convictions, empowers Bharara to bring whatever other cases he might have in the pipeline - including one against a sitting governor with an awful lot of smoke around him and his donors, two of whom had NPA's in the Silver and Skelos cases.

Whether Bharara goes that far, it's certainly impossible to know.

But as LeBrun wrote in his column, what once was deemed impossible is starting to feel like the inevitable.

The Precious piece points out that the clock is ticking on Bharara, with a presidential election coming next year, so whatever cases he plans to bring, he's going to have to bring them soon.

I guess for now we'll just have to take Bharara's own advice and stay tuned.

But what a show it is.

Skelos Trial: Cuomo Administration Gave Job To Donor's Son After Campaign Donation

This isn't "new" news, as Newsday reported it back in the spring, but it is interesting to see it surface in the Dean and Adam Skelos trials:

Skelos: Bonomo on cross admits his son got a job at NIFA shotly after he gave $50K to Cuomo.

— John Riley (@jriley8832) December 4, 2015

Back in June, Yancey Roy at Newsday reported this:

ALBANY - The son of Anthony Bonomo, a prominent insurer linked to the federal investigation of Sen. Dean Skelos and who until days ago led the New York Racing Association, began working for the Cuomo administration last year, state records show.

Anthony Bonomo Jr. started in 2014 as an executive assistant for the Office of Storm Recovery, which was launched by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo to help residents rebuild after superstorm Sandy and other recent hurricanes. Bonomo, who handles constituent services on Long Island, was hired for the $55,000-per-year job in May 2014, a spokeswoman said.

"Anthony is a hard worker and a smart young man who has done terrific work for the Office of Storm Recovery," said Barbara Broncaccio, agency spokeswoman.

Bonomo's father runs Physicians Reciprocal Insurers, a Roslyn-based medical malpractice carrier that holds about 25 percent of the market, according to reports. The Manhasset resident also is a significant campaign contributor and racehorse owner who, until Tuesday, chaired the New York Racing Association, which operates Belmont, Aqueduct and Saratoga tracks.

Federal prosecutors have alleged that Skelos (R-Rockville Centre), the former state Senate leader, tried to "monetize" his political power by getting payments and a job for his son, Adam, from a developer, an environmental firm and a malpractice insurer. Among other things, prosecutors alleged that the senator arranged a $100,000 per year "no show" job with a medical malpractice insurer. Skelos and his son have pleaded not guilty.

Though Physicians Reciprocal wasn't named in the indictment, a company spokesman said it has been contacted in the probe and has been cooperating with investigators. It has not been accused of wrongdoing.

Newsday previously reported that state lawmakers tucked into this year's state budget an extension of an exemption that helps malpractice insurers such as Physicians Reciprocal.

In July, Zack Fink gave much context to the "Bonomo Connection":

Anthony Bonomo, described by one insider as “just one of those guys everyone in state government knows,” is believed by many to be cooperating with U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara’s case against former State Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos and his son Adam. The Skelos’ pleaded ‘not guilty’ yesterday to a superseding indictment unveiled last week that contains two new charges. Specifically, that Adam Skelos threatened his supervisor who confronted him about not showing up to work. The arrangement seemed to be that Adam got a no-show job in exchange for the elder Skelos steering state money the firm’s way. That firm ( although not named ) is believed to be Physicians Reciprocal Insurers’ or PRI, owned and operated by one Anthony Bonomo.

What is less known is just how extensive Bonomo’s ties are to state government. According to Competitive Advantage Research, Bonomo, his associates and affiliates are responsible for 126 filings over the last 15 years. The campaign contributions spread across party lines and totaling $2,719,240.93. That’s a lot of dough. Jon Reznick of Competitive Advantage explains the breakdown:

“The individual Anthony Bonomo, his friends and relations including his spouse and likely his children as well as professional associates and the businesses he operates are themselves substantial donors accounting for $2.7 million just that I’ve found in the last 15 years.”

In addition, Bonomo has hired big time lobbyists including former Senator Al D’Amato, Founder and Managing Director of Park Strategies. According to Reznick’s analysis, Bonomo and associates have spent $1,550,500 since 2007.

According to the latest indictment, Adam Skelos threatened his boss with physical violence after being challenged about his failure to show up for work. Someone then called Dean Skelos ( sitting Senate Majority Leader at the time ) to try and explain the problem and work something out. At least one GOP source believes the only person who could have made that phone call was D’Amato, who could not immediately be reached for comment.

So, here is the timeline from which you can draw your own conclusions: In March, Bonomo gives a $50,000 contribution to Governor Andrew Cuomo’s campaign committee. A few days later, Cuomo appoints Bonomo the head of the New York Racing Association or NYRA ( a job that people close to the Administration insist he was qualified for, since he was very knowledgeable of horses and racing. Fair enough ). About a month later, Skelos and his son are slapped with federal corruption charges. And in early June, just four days before the Belmont Stakes – one of the biggest days in racing – Bonomo steps down from his position at NYRA, and presumably starts cooperating with the Feds against Dean and Adam. A month after that the new indictment drops with two new charges including personal details about Adam’s behavior. This signaled to some that federal investigators were likely getting information from Bonomo which helped build the second set of charges.

Now a question a reasonable observer might have is, how is it different when Dean Skelos presses Bonomo and PRI for a job for his son in return for favorable legislation to keep the company afloat and the Cuomo administration hires Anthony Bonomo's son for a $55K a year state job after dad gives $50,000 to Cuomo's campaign coffers?

Bonomo's got a non-prosecution agreement with the feds for the Skelos case, so he faces no charges for being part of the alleged quid pro quo.

US Attorney for the Southern District Preet Bharara was in the courtroom yesterday when Bonomo admitted on cross examination that his son got a state job after he gave Cuomo $50K, so clearly the feds are aware of that little doozy.

Now whether they choose to follow up on it, that's a whole other matter.

But it's just one more example in a long line of examples of Andrew Cuomo's donors getting preferential treatment from the state before and/or after giving campaign money to Cuomo or to entities linked to Cuomo (like the State Democratic Party or the Committee To Save New York, the shadowy PAC that pushed Cuomo's agenda early in his governorship but was shut down after the law changed and required PAC's like CSNY to reveal their donors.)

The impression a reasonable observer would get is, well, I think Steve McLaughlin put it best:

Nah....Cuomo's not for sale or anything.... that's just crazy talk.... https://t.co/RxTs5uTvIK

— Steve McLaughlin (@SteveMcNY) December 4, 2015

Update On The Cuomo Buffalo Billion Corruption Story

Yesterday was quite a day, with leaks coming throughout that US Attorney Preet Bharara was expanding his corruption probe of Albany politics to Governor Cuomo's Buffalo Billion Program and various entities and individuals connected to it.

First the NY Post reported that Bharara had launched an investigation into Cuomo's Buffalo Billion project, looking at the bidding process and the awarding of contracts.

Then the NY Daily News reported that SUNY Polytechnic Institute had been the recipient of subpoenas relating to the Buffalo Billion Project and had hired a criminal defense attorney to deal with the matter.

Last night the Buffalo News reported that the same contractor/Cuomo donor, Louis Ciminelli, who seemed to be the recipient of a rigged contract in the Buffalo Billion project, is also the contractor for the Buffalo Schools Construction Project, a $1.3 billion dollar renovation program that has tens of millions of funds missing.

Documents related to the Buffalo Schools Construction Project have also been subpoenaed by the US attorney's office.

The NY Times reports this morning that Cuomo appoints the majority of SUNY board members and is known for his "hands-on" management style when it comes to governance, especially around large-scale programs like the Buffalo Billion project.

Indeed, even as the leaks kept coming throughout the day about the Bharara probe into Cuomo's Buffalo Billion project, Cuomo was touting it before business leaders at a business conference in Lake George:

Governor Cuomo, in an address before the state’s business leaders,  promoted his economic development plans, including the Buffalo Billion initiative, and fended off questions on reports that some of the projects are under investigation by US Attorney Preet Bharara.

Cuomo, who was well received by business leaders meeting at the Sagamore resort on Lake George, gave a power point presentation focusing on his successes in building up the upstate economy, including the Buffalo Billion project, which has received praise and credit for helping turn around the state’s second largest city.

“Buffalo was the most pessimistic community about their economic future five years ago,” said Cuomo. “Today, Buffalo is the most optimistic, tied with Manhattan.”

Last night, WGRZ led their coverage of the Buffalo Billion investigation story with the headline "Is Governor Cuomo Under Investigation?" and gave a great round-up of the day's events, including analysis from Investigative Post's Jim Heaney, who may have kicked off the whole federal investigation with his reporting on the lack of transparency around the Buffalo Billion project bidding and contract award process.

Heaney says the investigation may center on Governor Cuomo's go-to economic development guy, SUNY Poly CEO Alain Kaloyeros, who has led the development of the nanotech industry in Albany as well as the spread of high-tech initiatives to Buffalo, Utica, Rochester and Syracuse.

Heaney was updating Investigative Post throughout the day as more leaks and reports came in - you can see those updates here.

Yesterday was a pretty extraordinary day in New York State.

What we learned yesterday is that a US attorney from Manhattan is rooting around in business dealings and contracts in Buffalo even as it's unknown whether the US attorney for Western New York - Bill Hochul - has recused himself from the investigation or just been passed over by Bharara's office because Hochul is the husband of Governor Cuomo's Lieutenant Governor, Kathy Hochul.

This appears to be part of a larger investigation into state contracts and business dealings with at least part of the focus on one of the state's highest paid employees, SUNY Polytech CEO Alain Kaloyeros, who also happens to have close ties to Governor Cuomo and former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver.

At least one Cuomo donor, Louis Ciminelli, has received subpoenas from the US attorney's office related to the Buffalo Billion project and what appears to be a rigged contract award as well as the Buffalo Schools Construction Project and what is said to be tens of millions of missing funds.

At the center of the Buffalo Billion project is a solar panel company chaired by Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla Motors - SolarCity.

The state is putting $750 million into the building of a manufacturing plant for SolarCity in Buffalo - but Jim Heaney reports that SolarCity lost $375 million last year and has lost over $300 million in the first half of this year.

Heaney also reports that SolarCity is the target of a federal investigation related to federal stimulus funds.

Something smells wrong about the state investing $750 million in a development project for a company that has lost over $675 million in the last year and a half alone, and yet that's what's happening here.

No wonder Governor Cuomo's administration did everything it could to quash FOIL requests for documents related to the project.

Unlike the reports that Preet Bharara was investigating Governor Cuomo's actions regarding the shutdown of the Moreland Commission, which were a little hazy with detail, the reports around the investigation of the Buffalo Billion are detailed, including who has received subpoenas in the case and who has lawyered up.

The pattern with Bharara and these corruption investigations has been leak, indictment, leak, indictment...

That's what happened in the Shelly Silver case and the Dean Skelos case.

These leaks yesterday - at least three separate ones to three different news organizations if I'm counting correctly - suggest Bharara intends to continue the pattern.

Governor Cuomo downplayed the stories yesterday, saying there's no "there" there in this story.

But he's fooling himself if he really believes that.

At the very least, the feds have one of his donors on the other end of a subpoena and one of the state's highest paid employees, the PolyTech CEO, who is leading Cuomo's development efforts for high tech industries in Buffalo, Rochester, Utica and Syracuse is the focus of, if not the target of, a criminal investigation.

Given the previous pattern with Bharara and leaks, you can be sure criminal charges will come and somebody will make a plea deal here to turn evidence over to the feds.

That's what happened in the Silver case and in the Skelos case - and I would bet that's what happens here too.

Will Cuomo's donor, Louis Ciminelli, get the squeeze and turn on Kaloyeros?

Will Kaloyeros get the squeeze and turn on someone else?

I'm speculating here, but given how Bharara worked in both the Silver case (where he got REBNY bagman Charlie Dorego to cooperate) and the Skelos case (where he got Cuomo donor and former NYRA chair Anthony Bonomo to cooperate along with using evidence from Dorego against Skelos and son), this is not idle speculation.

Cuomo's got serious problems here, whether the criminal investigation reaches him or not.

He has made the Buffalo Billion the centerpiece of his upstate economic agenda, spreading it to Rochester, Utica, and Syracuse, and now it appears that centerpiece is rotten to the core.

That's a political problem for sure.

Whats worse for Cuomo is, if Bharara's rooting around in this mess, what else is he rooting around in?

Just last week, Gotham Gazette reported that Cuomo had his mojo back, that he was strutting his stuff again after dispatching NYC mayor Bill de Blasio in a feud.

De Blasio was an easy opponent for Cuomo to beat - Preet Bharara, on the other hand, does not look like he will be so easy for Cuomo to dispatch.

New York State Takes $200 Million In Lottery Money Earmarked For Schools, Gives It To Horse Racing Association Instead

Buzzfeed News:

The state of New York diverted hundreds of millions of dollars from education to a scandal-plagued horse racing operator, Buzzfeed News has found.

Seven years ago, the state legislature carved out a special agreement that so far has taken more than $200 million in lottery revenue — money that otherwise goes to New York’s beleaguered schools — and given it to the New York Racing Association (NYRA), a not-for-profit corporation known for running of one of America’s most glamorous horse races, the Belmont Stakes, but also for allegations of corruption ranging from racetrack tellers laundering drug money to the chair buying the favor of a top legislator. The sweetheart deal was intended to help the racing organization regain solvency and repay a large state loan, but in the end NYRA managed to keep the loan as a gift — and to keep the sweetheart deal, too.

...

Now the Audit Director of the Office of the New York State Comptroller has told BuzzFeed News that the state agency has completed an examination of possible misuse of NYRA’s capital expenditures. The results of its audit will be released in the coming weeks.

NYSUT responds to the story:

The $200 million carveout — the full extent of which has not previously been reported — is only a tiny fraction of New York state’s overall schools budget. But according to Carl Korn, of the union representing New York state teachers, directing that money to the racing association instead of to schools has deprived teachers and students of much-needed resources.

“As this deal was being made, New York state was in the process of dramatically cutting education, leading to 30,000 job losses — roughly 22,000 in teachers,” Korn says. “And what is most outrageous is the poorest districts were hit with a disproportionate amount of these cuts.”

Governor Cuomo made one of his fundraisers, Anthony Bonomo, chair of NYRA, but Bonomo had to step down from the position when it was revealed he had given a no-show job to indicted former state Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos' son Adam and was cooperating with the feds in the investigation.

In turn, Bonomo's son works for Governor Cuomo's administration.

Here is the back story on the Bonomo/Cuomo/Skelos relationship:

In March, Bonomo gives a $50,000 contribution to Governor Andrew Cuomo’s campaign committee. A few days later, Cuomo appoints Bonomo the head of the New York Racing Association or NYRA ( a job that people close to the Administration insist he was qualified for, since he was very knowledgeable of horses and racing. Fair enough ). About a month later, Skelos and his son are slapped with federal corruption charges. And in early June, just four days before the Belmont Stakes – one of the biggest days in racing – Bonomo steps down from his position at NYRA, and presumably starts cooperating with the Feds against Dean and Adam. A month after that the new indictment drops with two new charges including personal details about Adam’s behavior. This signaled to some that federal investigators were likely getting information from Bonomo which helped build the second set of charges.

And the backstory on Bonomo's son working for Cuomo:

The son of Anthony Bonomo, a prominent insurer linked to the federal investigation of Sen. Dean Skelos and who until days ago led the New York Racing Association, began working for the Cuomo administration last year, state records show.

Anthony Bonomo Jr. started in 2014 as an executive assistant for the Office of Storm Recovery, which was launched by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo to help residents rebuild after superstorm Sandy and other recent hurricanes. Bonomo, who handles constituent services on Long Island, was hired for the $55,000 per year job in May 2014, a spokeswoman said.

Anthony is a hard worker and a smart young man who has done terrific work for the Office of Storm Recovery,a said Barbara Broncaccio, agency spokeswoman.

Now we learn that NYRA got lottery money earmarked for schools, something that was supposed to be a loan meant to help it out of financial woes, then never paid the money back because, why bother when you can just donate to candidates and keep the money (and the lottery funds carveout) instead?

Subsequent events also called into question what the sweetheart deal itself was for. According to Richard Rifkin, one of Gov. Spitzer’s lead negotiators, it was granted to keep NYRA afloat and ensure that the organization would be able to repay the state’s $105 million loan. Amid the political chaos of Gov. Spitzer’s scandal-driven resignation, New York agreed to a let the bankrupt NYRA keep the money. But it also kept the lottery carveout that was supposed to help the organization repay the loan. The carveout is in effect until at least 2033.

Soon after getting its bailout and emerging from bankruptcy, NYRA expanded its political contributions, according to online disclosures and analysis by Bennett Liebman, then an Albany Law School professor and NYRA board member who later became deputy secretary for gaming.

“In prior years, NYRA […] did not play the political game to any great extent,” Liebman writes in his analysis, which shows that NYRA became the largest political donor among gaming interests by late 2009.

Between April 2008 and the next major election in November 2010, its PAC made over a quarter million in political donations, including $50,000 to Gov. David Paterson, Eliot Spitzer’s successor, and roughly $200,000 to legislative candidates and political parties.

Governor Cuomo's New York - a cesspool of corruption and cronyism.

Funny how often NYRA is at the middle of that.

Newsday: Son Of Insurer In Skelos Probe On Cuomo Payroll

This report by Yancey Roy is behind a paywall, but it's really important so I'm going to repost the whole thing:

ALBANY - The son of Anthony Bonomo, a prominent insurer linked to the federal investigation of Sen. Dean Skelos and who until days ago led the New York Racing Association, began working for the Cuomo administration last year, state records show. 

Anthony Bonomo Jr. started in 2014 as an executive assistant for the Office of Storm Recovery, which was launched by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo to help residents rebuild after superstorm Sandy and other recent hurricanes. Bonomo, who handles constituent services on Long Island, was hired for the $55,000 per year job in May 2014, a spokeswoman said. 

Anthony is a hard worker and a smart young man who has done terrific work for the Office of Storm Recovery, said Barbara Broncaccio, agency spokeswoman. 

Bonomo's father runs Physicians Reciprocal Insurers, a Roslyn-based medical malpractice carrier that holds about 25 percent of the market, according to reports. The Manhasset resident also is a significant campaign contributor and racehorse owner who, until Tuesday, chaired the New York Racing Association, which operates Belmont, Aqueduct and Saratoga tracks. 

Federal prosecutors have alleged that Skelos (R-Rockville Centre), the former state Senate leader, tried to monetize his political power by getting payments and a job for his son, Adam, from a developer, an environmental firm and a malpractice insurer. Among other things, prosecutors alleged that the senator arranged a $100,000 per year a no show job with a medical malpractice insurer. Skelos and his son have pleaded not guilty.

Though Physicians Reciprocal wasn't named in the indictment, a company spokesman said it has been contacted in the probe and has been cooperating with investigators. It has not been accused of wrongdoing. 

Newsday previously reported that state lawmakers tucked into this year's state budget an extension of an exemption that helps malpractice insurers such as Physicians Reciprocal. 

Cuomo, who appointed Bonomo to the NYRA post, said he agreed with the decision to step down just days before Belmont hosts the so-called third jewel in horse racing's triple crown.

Anthony Bonomo has donated $400K to Cuomo and the State Democratic Party (which uses it's campaign kitty for Cuomo's purposes) over the past four years.

Bonomo is a cooperating witness in the Skelos case after he gave Skelos' son a $100K no show job.

Now it turns out Bonomo's son has a $55K a year gig on the Cuomo payroll.

Just how did Bonomo's son get the gig with the Cuomo administration?

What exactly does he do there to receive $55K a year?

Was there a quid pro quo between Bonomo and Cuomo to get the son the $55K a year job and Bonomo the NYRA chair and the extension of the exemption that helps malpractice insurers like Bonomo's company?

Finally, just how did Yancey Roy get the story?

Was it leaked by the feds to begin to set the stage for charges against Cuomo?

Or did he get it on his own?

Rumors are rife through Albany that Cuomo is the "ultimate target" in the US attorney's case against political corruption.

The Albany Project put forth a good case for why that is likely so.

This further connection between Bonomo and Cuomo with the son on the Cuomo payroll makes the case that Preet's going for Cuomo even more likely.

No wonder Andy's acting so crazy.

Cuomo Donor, Head Of NY Racing Association, Takes Leave After His Company Showed Up In Skelos Indictment

Casey Seiler at Capital Confidential:

Anthony Bonomo is taking a leave of absence — effective immediately — as the chairman of the board of the New York Racing Association less than a week after his company was revealed to have provided an alleged “no-show” job to the son of former state Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos.

“I do not want to have recent events distract from the ongoing work of NYRA,” Bonomo wrote in a letter to Gov. Andrew Cuomo Tuesday. “I wish you and NYRA continued success.”

On Monday, a Cuomo spokesman refused to respond when asked if Bonomo retained the governor’s confidence — a silence that in itself sent a message. His exit comes just days before NYRA’s biggest day of the year: the running of the Belmont Stakes, including potential Triple Crown winner American Pharoah.

Bonomo, whose term as board chair lasted slightly more than two months, serves as CEO of Physicians Reciprocal Insurers, which according to court documents provided Skelos’ son with $100,000 in payments and health benefits. The company was described but not named in a federal indictment returned by a Manhattan grand jury last week.

Anthony Bonomo and PRI donated $877K to pols and their various party committees during the 2014 election cycle, putting them in the top 25 in political contributors.

Bonomo and members of his family have donated $400K to Cuomo and the State Democratic Party over the past four years.

Wonder what Preet makes of all of this?

Preet's Working His Way Up The Food Chain

For the skeptics out there who remain dubious that US Attorney Preet Bharara is working his way up the chain to Governor Cuomo comes this theorizing from The Albany Project:

I think that it becomes clearer everyday that Preet Bharara neither Sheldon Silver or Dean Skelos are his ultimate target and that he is methodically arresting and indicting his way through Albany with a certain bigger fish in his sights. And he’s picked up some prime cooperating witnesses along the way while leaning hard on those he’s already nabbed to flip. 

Look at was happened in just the last few months. Bharara turned up the heat on Sheldon Silver after his arrest and indictment by then indicting his son-in-law for allegedly running a $7 million Ponzi scheme through a firm co-owned with Silver’s daughter who also serves as the firms CPA. A week later, he added some fresh charges to the former speaker’s indictment just to make sure Silver got the message.

Then Bharara’s office leaked that not only was Dean Skelos under investigation, but that Bharara was presenting a criminal case to a federal grand jury that targeted not only Skelos, but also his son. He then arrests them both on federal corruption charges. Then, to turn the screws on Skelos further, tosses in this new charge, one that wasn’t mentioned at all in the initial criminal complaint against Skelos and son, about the no-show job from the firm run by a guy with significant ties to Cuomo.

Along the way, Bharara flipped the bagman for the state’s largest political donor, a man responsible for spreading millions in campaign cash all over the state to politicians in both parties, and let it be known that he now had god-only-knows how many new wiretap targets thanks to Sheldon Silver. That sent shockwaves through Albany and has lawmakers all over town freaking right the hell out. Bharara is so far in their heads that they are too scared to even do typical end of session horse trading for fear that Bharara will nail them for it.

This is all reminiscent of how prosecutors run mafia cases, working their way up the food chain by arresting and pressuring the hell out of the underlings to make a case against the boss. Bharara is doing exactly that. He’s getting closer and closer to the top of the pyramid. He’s putting enormous pressure on both Silver and Skelos to cut a deal, and in New York, there’s only one chair above them on the org chart.  

... 

It’s becoming increasingly obvious that Preet Bharara is not conducting a number of separate, unrelated investigations into corrupt Albany pols. He is conducting one massive investigation, one that is moving ever closer to the guy at the top.

Cuomo appointed the latest federal cooperating witness, Anthony Bonomo, to run the New York Racing Association in April.

Bonomo and family have donated $400K to Cuomo over the last four years.

Bonomo gave Dean Skelos' son, Adam, a no-show job worth a hundred grand.

Bonomo is cooperating with the feds in the case against the Skelos men.

I suppose you can make the case that Bharara is just taking a scattershot approach to corruption in New York, but the Albany Project theory makes a lot more sense.

He's working his way up the food chain.

One of the critiques on Bharara is that he's Wall Street's boy, that he's never gone after systemic corruption on the Street but instead has targeted insider trading cases and Madoff.

The critique goes that Preet, out of the Schumer shop, is being very careful not to antagonize the big boys so that if he does run for higher office some day, he doesn't have to worry about them trying to "Spitzer" him.

As a side note to this theory, it's said by some that Bharara won't take down Cuomo because he's Wall Street's puppet.

But I don't think that's necessarily so - the part about taking out Cuomo, I mean.

Kathy Hochul, the former bank lobbyist, would become governor if anything ever happened to Cuomo, so it's not like Wall Street's interests won't be taken care of if Cuomo goes down.

I would add that Cuomo's become a bit of a liability of late, what with all the Cuomo donors becoming cooperating witnesses and such, so you can make the argument that maybe, just maybe, Wall Street wouldn't be so sad to see Cuomo taken out and replaced with the equally amenable but much less troublesome Hochul.

We'll just have to see what happens.

Regardless, you can bet with all these Cuomo donors cooperating and with some other Cuomo cronies getting squeezed, Sheriff Andy isn't happy and doesn't really know what to do about it.

Today he argued that he has passed the "most dramatic" ethics reforms in history so you know, everything's cool.

I dunno, I'm no lawyer, but I'm going to guess that Bharara doesn't see it that way - not with the case he seems to be building against Sheriff Andy.

Is The De Blasio Public Slam Of Cuomo A Sign That Cuomo Is Soon To Hit The Skids?

The always-perceptive Michael Fiorillo on what de Blasio's pointed public criticism of Cuomo may mean:

De Blasio has been very careful and calculated in his dealings with our Reptilian Governor, and this is in that vein, suggesting that the Mayor has decided that Cuomo is sufficiently wounded and undermined that he can be openly criticized or defied.

Perhaps another sign that The Reptilian One is soon to hit the skids.

One big-time donor to Cuomo is cooperating with the feds (Anthony Bonomo), a lobbyist (Charles Dorego) to Cuomo's biggest donor (Glenwood Management) is cooperating with the feds, Cuomo's point man in Buffalo just had his condo raided last week G. Steven Pigeon) and some in Albany think Dean Skelos is looking for a plea deal in exchange for leniency in sentencing for himself and his son, Adam. That plea deal would most liekly only come in exchange for information on Cuomo.

On top of all of this, Cuomo is at his lowest level in job approval in both the Marist and Siena polls and his favorability has been falling over the past year.

He's taking a steady barrage of attacks for his war on teachers and public schools.

Scheiderman just publicly embarrassed him by pushing for ethics reforms that Cuomo claims he's for but just never gets around to putting any muscle behind.

I wouldn't be ready to write Cuomo off yet, but the Good Ship Cuomo is certainly taking on a lot of water and listing to port.

De Blasio's coming out in public with his criticism of Cuomo does seem to be another sign that Cuomo's ship is sinking.

“If There’s Something To Be Known About The Governor, His Office Or Anyone Else In Albany, They Know It.”

Ken Lovett in today's Daily News:

Albany is again on edge with reports last week that several prominent players with access to Gov. Cuomo and other major state government figures are either cooperating with the feds or under investigation.

Anthony Bonomo, a big time donor to Gov. Cuomo and other state politicians in both parties and who was recently named by the governor as chairman of the New York Racing Association, last week was referenced (not by name) in the indictment against now former Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos (R-Suffolk County) for allegedly giving the senator’s son a $100,000 no-show job. 

And Steve Pigeon, a registered lobbyist and longtime Democratic operative from western New York who has done work for Cuomo, had his home raided by state and federal investigators as part of a probe into his fundraising activities.

Meanwhile, Charles Dorego, a top executive at Glenwood Management, has been cooperating with the feds in separate cases against Skelos and now former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver. Influential lobbyist Brian Meara, who has close ties to Silver, has also been cooperating in the probe against the Manhattan Democrat.

“These are not just nobodys,” one insider said. “If there’s something to be known about the governor, his office or anyone else in Albany, they know it.”

There are many Perdido Street School blog readers skeptical that Preet will go after Cuomo.

I totally get that skepticism and share in some of it

But having watched the feds line up Dorego and now Bonomo as cooperating witnesses, with Pigeon about to be squeezed, and (perhaps) Skelos set to deal, I have to say, there's an awful lot of people who have dirt on Cuomo in the feds' clutches.

Not saying that means Preet's going after Cuomo.

But it appears he's going after somebody, doesn't it?

And these are all Cuomo cronies in one way or another.

Interesting times we live in.

Preet Bharara Moves Ever Closer To Cuomo

Fred Dicker in the NY Post:

Attorney Preet Bharara moved “a giant step closer” to Gov. Cuomo late last week with an indictment that alleges insurance exec Anthony Bonomo, a top Cuomo contributor whom the governor made chairman of the New York Racing Association, gave a lucrative no-show job to state Sen. Dean Skelos’ son, sources have told The Post.

“Bonomo is Cuomo’s guy, and he wouldn’t offer anything to Skelos’ kid without first making sure it was OK with the governor or his people,’’ said a senior state Democrat.

“The fact that Bonomo, like Dorego, is cooperating with Bharara brings the whole investigation a giant step closer to Cuomo,’’ the Democrat added, referring to Charles Dorego, a top official at Cuomo megacontributor Leonard Litwin’s Glenwood Management.

Glenwood, a real-estate development firm, has been linked to the Skelos indictment and the indictment of Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver. Dorego is cooperating with Bharara’s probe.

Others at the Capitol agreed Bharara appeared to be moving closer to charging Cuomo and/or one or more of his top aides in his investigation of corruption in state government, which originated with Cuomo’s abrupt closure last year of his Moreland Act Commission as it was closing in on evidence of wrongdoing.

“This is a drip by drip that’s getting closer and closer to Cuomo, with Bonomo and Dorego providing prosecutors with an inside look at how the corrupt Albany system works,’’ explained a second senior state political figure.

...

The indictment said a state-regulated insurance company — identified as the Bonomo-run Physicians Reciprocal Insurers (PRI) — gave Adam Skelos a no-show job worth more than $100,000 at a time when it was lobbying Sen. Skelos on legislative matters.

A spokesman for the Roslyn, LI-based insurer said Friday that Bonomo — who with family members contributed nearly $250,000 to Cuomo’s campaign committee — and others at the company “are fully cooperating with the US Attorney’s Office.”

Several sources at the Capitol said Bonomo’s alleged willingness to provide a no-show job to Adam Skelos was further proof of Cuomo’s close political ties to Sen. Skelos.

“If you needed any further proof of Skelos’ ties to Cuomo and his people, this job from Bonomo’s company for Skelos’ kid should provide it,” said a top GOP official.

 Bonomo cooperating with the feds is bad enough for Cuomo.

But then there's this:

Some in Albany think Skelos will eventually plead - here's NT2 blog from a few weeks ago:

Not everyone can hack the hard core world that is state politics and government today.

Silver can. Deposed, he won’t quit. He sits in the back of the chamber and seethes. He lives for the day when he can testify and tell people how crazy it is to think that a grant for cancer research could be a bribe to get a client referral nine years later.

So can Libous. They investigated him for seven years and the best they could come up with was a charge that he lied when he said he didn’t remember how his son got a job. Then they went after the son and charged him with nine counts of which two counts stuck. It’s a tax offense for which an ordinary person would have to re-file and pay a penalty, but the son is going to jail for it. Libous struggles with both cases and with cancer and complications from back surgery, but still he won’t give in.

And then there’s Skelos. He’s not steely like Silver and Libous. He’s a mess. He can’t think clearly. Over the weekend, he dissembled to the point of telling colleagues that if they forced him out, he’d quit and they’d lose their majority. Only after everyone reassured him that they’d stand by him did he relent, but this isn’t a situation in which anybody thinks he’ll have the stomach to continue the fight. He’ll make a deal with the Feds. He’ll do anything to make it easier on himself and his son.

Something similar happened with Brian Meera. He’d had it good for a long time and was approaching retirement. Even though he didn’t think he’d done anything wrong, he wasn’t going to take a chance. He made a deal to protect himself.

If Skelos looks to plead, Preet's going to want some information on somebody big.

I would bet Skelos has some dope on Cuomo the feds would find interesting.

Couple that with the Bonomo and Dorego cooperation, and you interesting times in Albany.