Schneiderman Investigates Cuomo Ally For Rigging Bid For A Cuomo Donor

Another day, another corruption investigation involving a Cuomo ally and/or associate:

State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s office is investigating potential bid-rigging in the development of a dormitory on the campus of SUNY Polytechnic Institute, according to a source with knowledge of the investigation.

SUNY Poly’s CEO Alain Kaloyeros, the state’s highest-paid employee and a major player in Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s upstate high-tech development blueprint, is a key focus of the investigation, according to the source.

Subpoenas were issued in September to SUNY Poly as well as its development arm, Fuller Road Management Corp., as well as two Albany-based companies involved in the dorm project, Columbia Development and EYP Architecture & Engineering.

...

The Attorney General’s subpoenas were not the only ones received by SUNY Poly last fall.

The same month, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District Preet Bharara’s office subpoenaed records from the school as part of its investigation into the Buffalo Billion program.

At the time, Cuomo said, “You can have investigations but that does not mean there’s any ‘there’ there, or that anyone did anything wrong.”

This SUNY case mirrored the Buffalo Billion case wherein a bid was rigged for a Cuomo donor to win:

A request-for-proposals issued by the school asked that the dorms be located within a 10-minute walk of SUNY Poly’s Fuller Road campus and required that the developer be based in the Capital Region and have experience in dorm construction.

The requirements matched the abilities of Columbia Development, which had been buying land along Loughlin Street adjacent to the SUNY Poly campus. Columbia is also the lead developer of the $190 million ZEN building on the campus, and the company said that it planned to become a tenant in that building.

SUNY Poly later said that Columbia had won the bid and would likely build three dormitories and parking on land that included the Loughlin Street properties.
...
 Columbia and its various entities have given the governor’s campaign at least $200,000 over the past three years. Half of that sum was donated to Cuomo’s political operation on a single day — June 17, 2014 — by two Columbia LLCs that each made $50,000 donations.

The same day, Nicolla’s wife, Jessica Nicolla, made a $50,000 donation to the governor’s campaign that, according to Board of Elections records, was made using her maiden name and an address in Muncie, Ind., her home town.

The same scam was worked in the Buffalo Billion with LP Ciminelli:

 Not content with just building a factory for Solar City, the Cuomo administration appears to have rigged the bid by putting in the RFP (request for proposals) a stipulation that only a company with 50 years in business could bid. Well..... interestingly there is only one company in Buffalo that fit that bill, L.P. Ciminelli. Even more interesting is that Ciminelli is one of Cuomo's top 100 donors. Wow! What a coincidence!

When the information came out about the 50 year requirement the excuse was that it "was a typographical error" and it had been corrected and it should have said 15 years. But, Ciminelli was still awarded the contract.

Take a look at your keyboard. How does someone mistakenly type

50 instead of 15? I believe that excuse like I believe Cuomo supports education or your 2nd amendment rights.

Ciminelli was of course a Cuomo donor:

LPCiminelli, whose chairman and chief executive, Louis P. Ciminelli, is a financial backer of Mr. Cuomo’s, was ultimately selected to construct the SolarCity factory.

Records show that the Ciminelli family was supportive of the governor’s campaign during the period when developers were being sought for Buffalo Billion projects.

On Nov. 19, 2013, Mr. Cuomo traveled to Buffalo for a fund-raiser. Campaign finance records show that Mr. Ciminelli’s wife provided facilities or services to the Cuomo campaign that day worth $2,350 — known as an in-kind contribution. A Cuomo campaign spokesman said the contribution paid for a private gathering that Mr. Ciminelli hosted for the governor that night.

Three weeks later, on Dec. 10, LPCiminelli submitted its proposal for development work as part of the Buffalo Billion. In early January, Mr. Ciminelli and his wife gave more money to the governor — $29,200 in total. Mr. Ciminelli was so generous, he donated more to Mr. Cuomo than was allowed by law, so a portion of his donation was refunded.

Later that month, LPCiminelli was selected as one of the winning developers, and would eventually build the SolarCity factory.

The subpoena to SUNY Polytechnic sought records related to monetary and in-kind donations to any state elected official.

A pattern of quid pro quo - bid rigging for Cuomo's donors, donations coming Cuomo's way?

De Blasio Defends Mayoral Control Despite Scandals

De Blasio was up in Albany today testifying in favor of extension of mayoral control.

State of Politics reports that the testimony was a fairly staid affair - except for this exchange:

The only actual fireworks came when de Blasio was challenged by Republican Sen. Terrence Murphy, who has been a staunch critic of the mayor and is a freshman lawmaker from a suburban Senate district that includes Putnam and Westchester counties.

“Convince me,” Murphy said, “with all the allegations going on in your office why I should vote for mayoral control.”

De Blasio responded by pointing to successes under the mayoral control program, including higher graduation rates and test scores as well as an expansion of computer science courses.

“These are major changes in the way we approach education,” de Blasio said. “It’s only possible under a mayoral control system.”

Murphy, however, wasn’t necessarily convinced.

“There’s one thing you forgot and that’s the trust factor,” Murphy said. “You have to have the trust of the people.”

The mayor shot back: “The public trusts the actual positive changes in their lives.”

And he added the allegations that have been raised shouldn’t count against the mayoral control policy itself or his administration.

“In our democracy, we don’t judge by allegations,” he said, “we judge by facts.”

Murphy’s political allies had initially complained over the Democratic fundraising tactics in 2014, when donors at de Blasio’s urging gave heavily to county party committees, which in turn supported candidates running in key battleground races.

Murphy succeeded in the Senate Republican Greg Ball, a maverick GOP lawmaker and conservative firebrand who moved to Texas rather than seek re-election.

De Blasio’s political team had backed Democrat Justin Wagner to replace Ball, one of a half-dozen competitive races that year. 

Heavy money is on mayoral control being extended for a year, then we do it all over again next year (assuming de Blasio isn't indicted or heading to prison by then.)

De Blasio wants a multi-year extension (knowing he cannot get a permanent extension like he tried for last year) but state Senate Republicans and Cuomo want to humiliate him as much as possible, so it's a heavy left to get more than a single year.

But we'll see - Heastie is backing the mayor and as always in Albany, you never know what gets horsetraded.

Oops - We'd Better Cancel That Event With The Governor's Secretary

Casey Seiler at the Times Union:

Amid a full-blooming investigation of possible deception and conflicts of interest involving Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s former executive deputy secretary Joe Percoco, a May 10 “Public Affairs Roundtable Breakfast” featuring Cuomo’s current Secretary Bill Mulrow has been postponed.

The roundtable was to have been hosted by the lobbying arm of the Whiteman Osterman & Hanna law firm.

A subsidiary, WOH Government Solutions, was run by lobbyist Todd Howe, who represented several of the companies currently in focus in U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara’s probe into upstate economic development projects.

It's perfect that a roundtable featuring the governor's secretary was being sponsored by the lobbying arm of a law firm under investigation for corruption involving the governor's former aides and his Buffalo Billion Project.

I think they should have let it go on anyway - kinda like an emblem for the administration as a whole.

Cuomo Trying To Downplay Appearance Of Corruption

From Politico NY:

ALBANY — Gov. Andrew Cuomo said a power plant that is at the center of a federal corruption probe still needs more approvals from the state, even though construction crews are now pouring its foundation.

Competitive Power Ventures already is at work on a proposed $1 billion 650-megawatt natural gas-fired power plant in Wawayanda, Orange County. U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara is looking into ties between the plant and Cuomo administration figures. The governor's office has now cut off contact with CPV.

Cuomo, speaking to reporters on Monday for the first time since the scandal broke last Friday, tried to downplay the state’s action on CPV’s gas plant. He said permits issued by the state were “conditional,” though the plant began construction months ago.

“The CPV plant has not been approved, so it’s not like the plant is operating,” he told reporters. “There was a conditional early approval, they have to do a final agreement, which has never been done.”

Sure, the approval is conditional.

That's why the concrete is being poured for the foundation.

Everybody knows you pour the concrete for projects that haven't yet been approved so that you're ready to go when they get the "A-OK!"

As for where the appearance of corruption comes in:

For years, environmental and community groups have raised concerns about the plant, and the administration dismissed all of them, said Pramilla Malick, who runs a group called Protect Orange County that opposes the plant. Some of the numerous questions raised by local citizens over the years include whether trees were improperly cleared, whether the plant encroached upon the habitat of an endangered bat and whether it destroyed wetlands. They have also questioned why the Cuomo administration was pushing forward with a natural gas-fired power plant at a time when it was implementing climate policies, such as a fracking ban, that turned the state away from fossil fuel reliance.

“On multiple levels this project was inconsistent and incoherent with his public policies, which is why we were so bewildered with the approvals this project kept getting,” she said.

... 

Over the years, CPV has spent more than $220,000 on lobbying and donations to Cuomo’s campaign or to those of state lawmakers.

The wife of former Cuomo aide Joe Percoco received up to $120,000 from CPV, financial disclosures show. Some of the payments to Lisa Toscano-Percoco, who was a teacher in the New York City school system the year before she was employed by a consultancy firm, Chris Pitts LLC, that did work for CPV. Todd Howe, a lobbyist and longtime Cuomo friend who is also at the center of the investigation, has also done work for CPV.

Gee, maybe that's how the concrete for the foundation wound up getting poured before the official, you know, approval.

Shelly

Best reaction to Shelly Silver getting sentenced to 12 years in prison and a hefty fine to boot:

pic.twitter.com/wr5oyYyYrG

— Fake Sheldon Silver (@ShellySilver) May 3, 2016

In other corruption news:

BREAKING: Republican former Sen. Tom Libous has died.

— Nick Reisman (@NickReisman) May 3, 2016

In July of 2015, Libous was found guilty of one count of lying to the FBI.

Silver going to prison, Libous dead less than a year after a criminal conviction.

Will be interesting to see what changes come about in the year ahead on the corruption front, won't it?

Scott Stringer Would Primary De Blasio Now If He Knew He Could Win

Ross Barkan in the Village Voice:

De Blasio is trapped in a singular no-man's-land. Bloomberg had the elites and the upper middle class; Giuliani had his white outer-borough ethnics. To all of these people, de Blasio is a feckless socialist. And to many of his old allies — and the leftists who never trusted him in the first place — he is a Hillary Clinton in Elizabeth Warren's clothing.

Emblematic of this struggle, and maybe of de Blasio's entire mayoralty, was his belated decision to back Clinton for president. She announced her campaign in April 2015; he hemmed and hawed until October. No one really believed that de Blasio, the campaign manager for her 2000 Senate bid, would endorse Bernie Sanders, and his delayed choice was widely mocked — even by Clinton, during their excruciating "CP time" skit at the annual Inner Circle dinner. But according to City Hall sources, de Blasio actually did come genuinely close to endorsing Sanders, only to have top aides, including Emma Wolfe, talk him out of it. As the presidential primary descended on New York this April, de Blasio, frozen out of Clintonland for insufficient loyalty and bereft of the adulation progressives showered on Sanders, had nowhere left to go.

Now his potential 2017 rivals salivate. Comptroller Scott Stringer would primary him now if he knew he could win. Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. and U.S. Representative Hakeem Jeffries have Cuomo cooing in their ears. De Blasio can't buy support or deference like Bloomberg could, and he's never been overwhelmingly popular since he took office. Had he embraced his progressive conscience fully and endorsed Sanders, he could at least have tapped into a whole new universe of donors, a wave of millennials thrilled to have their own Bernie acolyte in stodgy City Hall. Imagine if Sanders deigned to email a fundraising appeal on behalf of his besieged Brooklyn buddy?

Read the whole piece by Barkan - it's quite fair to de Blasio and pretty instructive of why he's in the mess he's in.

As for Stringer, I say he should throw his hat in the ring if he's so eager to run against de Blasio.

Show some guts, have at it while the mayor's down (and maybe almost out) and the governor's actively looking for primary challengers against de Blasio.

Federal Investigators Looking At Cuomo's Vaunted Solar City Project

From the Buffalo News:

Federal investigators looking into the Buffalo Billion have requested information from SolarCity, the California-based rooftop solar energy systems installer, whose solar panel factory in South Buffalo is the keystone of the state’s high-profile economic development initiative.

SolarCity is not the focus of the investigation, a company spokesman said Monday.

The spokesman also said it was “premature” to speculate on how the ongoing investigation by U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara will have on the timeline for completing construction of the $900 million factory. The plant would be the biggest solar panel production facility in the Western Hemisphere, now scheduled to open next year.

“We’re not the focus of the investigation, but the U.S. Attorney’s office did request information from us to aid in the investigation, and we will cooperate fully,” Jonathan Bass, SolarCity’s vice president of communications, said in a statement in response to questions from The Buffalo News.
 
Bass noted that SolarCity has not been directly involved with the construction of the 1 million-square-foot solar panel factory that is being built on South Park Avenue. Under the company’s deal with the state, New York is paying $750 million to build the factory and install sophisticated production equipment that SolarCity will use to make its solar panels. The company, which has agreed to spend up to $150 million of its own money on the project, will lease the factory from the state for $1 a year, plus utilities, over a 10-year term.

If you're looking for stock not to buy, Solar City fits the bill.

Unless you're into dead cats, that is.

FBI Executed Search Warrants In Four Different Locations In Buffalo Billion Corruption Investigation

From the NY Times:

Financial disclosure statements from a former senior aide and campaign manager to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, currently at the center of an investigation involving improper lobbying and conflicts of interest, show that he earned at least $70,000 in consulting fees in 2014 from two entities that do business with the state.

The aide, Joseph Percoco, was one of Mr. Cuomo’s closest confidants and was employed by him as his executive deputy secretary until early January, when he left for a job as senior vice president at Madison Square Garden.

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan and the Federal Bureau of Investigation are currently looking at whether Mr. Percoco and his wife failed to properly disclose thousands of dollars in income they had received from entities doing business with the state, according to people briefed on the matter.

The state’s Joint Commission on Public Ethics, known as Jcope, received a federal grand jury subpoena seeking copies of Mr. Percoco’s financial disclosure forms more than a week ago, according to a person familiar with the subpoena. F.B.I. agents from the Buffalo office have executed search warrants at locations around Buffalo, Albany, New York City and Washington, several people briefed on the matter said.

Also last week, the governor’s office received a grand jury subpoena seeking a broad range of records, including correspondence and other documents, reflecting whether Mr. Percoco may have sought a benefit on behalf of any of the companies that paid him and his wife, or anyone else, a person with knowledge of the subpoena said.

Search warrants at locations around Buffalo, Albany, New York and Washington.

Subpoenas to JCOPE and the governor's office.

Cuomo talked to the press last night in an extraordinary effort toward damage control.

But the governor's jive is meaningless in the face of search warrants and subpoenas.

Companies Tied To Percoco Corruption Investigation Increased Donations To Cuomo

From the Wall Street Journal:

A former aide to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo who is a focus of a federal public-corruption probe reported at least $70,000 in income from two companies that had business before the state and had contributed to the governor’s re-election campaign.

The federal investigation is looking at payments that Joseph Percoco, Mr. Cuomo’s former aide and re-election campaign manager, reported he received from COR Development Co. LLC, a developer, and CHA, a civil-engineering firm previously known as Clough, Harbour & Associates LLC, and whether the firms received beneficial treatment from the state, according to people familiar with the matter.

Mr. Percoco’s annual financial disclosure statements show he received payments from both companies in 2014. He received between $50,000 and $75,000 from COR and between $20,000 and $50,000 from CHA, according to the reports.

...

During the time Mr. Percoco reported receiving the payments from these companies, he spent a large portion of the year working as campaign manager for Mr. Cuomo’s 2014 re-election bid, a period that coincided with a significant increase in donations to the governor’s campaign from CHA.

Between 2013 and 2014, Clough, Harbour & Associates donated $160,000 to Mr. Cuomo’s campaign, according to filings with the state Board of Elections. Before that, the one reported contribution from the firm to Mr. Cuomo was $1,000 in 2010. The company gave another $35,000 to the governor’s campaign in 2015.

In 2013, COR executives and LLCs affiliated with the company contributed $187,500 to Mr. Cuomo’s campaign, up from $60,000 in 2012 and $15,000 in 2011.

Before January 2011, the only contribution from those parties was a $5,000 donation from COR President Steven F. Aiello, in 2010.

Steven F. Aiello has a son, Steven L. Aiello, who currently works for the state's Division of Military and Naval Affairs as a project assistant but previously worked for Cuomo's re-election campaign.

COR reiterated yesterday that they never paid Percoco but Percoco's JCOPE disclosure form says otherwise.

Perhaps Preet never gets as high as Cuomo in this matter, perhaps Cuomo continues to have plausible deniability around the corruption allegations, the increased donations, the outside payments, the rigged bids and so forth.

Jim Heaney at Investigative Post writes that even if that is so, Cuomo's governing style invited this kind of corruption:

In short, the Cuomo crowd is obsessed with secrecy and operates with the mistaken notion that the rules don’t apply to them. The governor may or may not have knowledge of the supposed misdeeds of some of his associates, but he has most certainly created an environment that’s made state government susceptible to official misconduct.

The erased emails, the use of untraceable Blackberry PIN communication, the ignored FOIA requests - all show Cuomo running his administration not like a governing official but like an organized crime figure who doesn't want to end up on a wire or with his emails subpoenaed.

And if Cuomo or his minions get offended by the organized crime analogy, well, too bad.

That's exactly how they run things in the Cuomo administration, as we're seeing more and more in the Buffalo Billion and associated investigations.

Cuomo: I Knew Of Percoco's Outside Consulting Work And I Was Okay With It

Cuomo talked to the press tonight about the Percoco investigation:

.@NYGovCuomo says @JosephPercoco was a "consultant" to his campaign in 2014 and allowed to have other clients pic.twitter.com/hzGteWDT5W

— Zack Fink (@ZackFinkNews) May 2, 2016

NEW: @NYGovCuomo says he was aware that when Joe Percoco went to work on his campaign that Percoco might accept consulting fees.

— erica orden (@eorden) May 2, 2016

Cuomo says he had one talk w Percoco upon becoming campaign manager. Percoco said he might accept fees. He didn't say from where.

— erica orden (@eorden) May 2, 2016

Cuomo says that's the only conversation they had about it. He says he didn't ask Joe whether he ever went ahead & accepted fees.

— erica orden (@eorden) May 2, 2016

Cuomo says that when Percoco returned to the state payroll "obviously he stopped representing the other clients."

— erica orden (@eorden) May 2, 2016

.@NYGovCuomo says the situation with @JosephPercoco had been "deeply troubling," but also says he was allowed to consult in private sector

— Zack Fink (@ZackFinkNews) May 2, 2016

.@NYGovCuomo says when one leaves government they are allowed to represent private sector clients. No reason to say "who did you represent?"

— Zack Fink (@ZackFinkNews) May 2, 2016

And now, some reaction to Cuomo's comments:

So in #CorruptCuomo world "consulting" (direct pipeline to Cuomo) is ok.....but "lobbying" would be illegal. Unreal https://t.co/VKtyYk7cRs

— Steve McLaughlin (@SteveMcNY) May 3, 2016

Radio listener:"You're campaign manager for the governor of the state of NY and you're taking money from companies doing business with NY?"

— Fredric U. Dicker (@fud31) May 2, 2016

@SteveMcNY @perdidostschool @ZackFinkNews @NYGovCuomo @JosephPercoco pic.twitter.com/exqpnc39vY

— Sullio (@sullio) May 3, 2016

@ZackFinkNews @NYGovCuomo re: Subdivision 8 of §73 of the Public Officers Law - the 2 year ban only applies to the little people?

— Brian Joseph (@17rambler) May 3, 2016

In essence:

@eorden There you have it - Cuomo's investigation of himself is concluded. Nothing to see here, move on, folks...

— rbe (@perdidostschool) May 2, 2016

Or, if you're more of a visual learner:

@perdidostschool @eorden https://t.co/gV39PWA1H4

— Sullio (@sullio) May 2, 2016

Somebody's Lying

From Tim Knauss at Syracuse.com:

SYRACUSE, N.Y. – COR Development Co. officials on Saturday denied ever paying a cent to a former top aide to Gov. Andrew Cuomo. But today state officials released a disclosure form on which that aide, Joseph Percoco, declared between $50,000 and $75,000 in income from COR Development.

Today, COR officials stood by their assertion that the company never paid Percoco.

Percoco is reported to be one of the targets of a federal investigation into Cuomo's Upstate economic development efforts. He worked as a top aide to the governor for years, and took a leave of absence for much of 2014 to run Cuomo's re-election campaign.

On a state-mandated financial disclosure form filed with the Joint Commission on Public Ethics and made public today, Percoco listed COR along with the Cuomo campaign as one of his sources of income. According to the form, COR paid Percoco "consulting fees.''

The Wall Street Journal reported that U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara is looking into whether Percoco received undisclosed outside income from companies doing business with the state, including COR, among other lines of investigation.

Asked about that report Saturday, COR officials said they never paid Percoco.

"COR Development did not hire, retain or pay Joe Percoco in any capacity, and intends to fully cooperate with any investigation into this matter," said Maggie Truax, speaking for the company.

Asked today about Percoco's filing, Truax said only that COR stood by its original statement. She offered no further explanation.

"Our statement stands as is,'' she said.

Yikes.

So COR Development says they never paid Percoco.

Percoco's disclosure form says they did.

Casey Seiler succinctly explained what that means:

Either Joe Percoco or COR Development is lying about his 2014 receipt of consulting fees. h/t @syracusedotcom pic.twitter.com/BnNw63Ucoh

— Casey Seiler (@CaseySeiler) May 2, 2016

I bet Preet Bharara might be able to get to the bottom of who is lying - and why.

Here might be another interesting thing for Preet to pursue:

They say bc Percoco went off state payroll in April 2014, a month before filings due to JCOPE, they didn't require he file for year prior.

— erica orden (@eorden) May 2, 2016

The more these Percoco matters get looked into, the more questions that get raised.

When it's journalists raising the questions, the Cuomo administration has been able to evade answering.

But of course, a US attorney with subpoena power is a whole different thing.

COR, btw, gave Andrew Cuomo a lot of money too:

Steven F. Aiello, COR Development's president and management member, has given Cuomo $65,000 in his own name since the beginning of the governor's first term in 2011, and his wife, Lori, gave $25,000. Three limited liability companies sharing a Fayetteville address gave a collective of more than $92,000, records show, and at least $65,000 in other gifts can also be tied to the company.

And, to make matters even more curious:

A young policy aide in the Cuomo administration, Steven L. Aiello, is Steven F. Aiello's son, a Cuomo spokesman confirmed. He had previously worked at the state Division of Homes and Community Renewal, and also worked as director of operations for Cuomo's 2014 reelection bid, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Subpoena away, Preet.

More Cuomo Donors Who Got Big Big Favors

Man, the questionable stories around Governor Cuomo and his donors keep coming.

There was this one this morning.

Now here's another:

ALBANY — The company that proposed a power plant now at the center of U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara’s probe of the Cuomo administration has received a series of beneficial state approvals in recent years and was a generous donor to Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

Competitive Power Ventures is now at work on a proposed $1 billion natural gas-fired power plant in Wawayanda, Orange County.

As a result of Bharara’s probe, the administration has cut off contact with CPV, the Daily News has reported. Bharara is examining whether top Cuomo aide Joe Percoco received tens of thousands of dollars from CPV, the Wall Street Journal reported. Todd Howe, a lobbyist close to Cuomo who is also at the center of the investigation, has done work for CPV.

The CPV Energy Center plant has received a series of approvals from the Cuomo administration over the years. The 650-megawatt plant in Orange County is viewed by the Cuomo administration as a key part of its plan to find replacement power for the Indian Point nuclear center, should Gov. Andrew Cuomo succeed in his effort to get it shut down.

The state’s action on CPV includes multiple levels of approvals for plant, as well as an approval for upgrades to the Marcy transmission line, which will connect it to the energy grid. The plant will also connect to the Millennium pipeline, which the company has applied for that through the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

The approval of the natural gas-fired plant came at a time when the administration was generally attempting to move away from fossil fuel generation and toward renewable energy generation, per its Reforming Energy Vision, which seeks to make the energy grid more reliant on renewable sources and more efficient.

CPV has spent more than $140,000 lobbying the Cuomo administration and lawmakers in recent years, state lobbying disclosures show. CPV, and a host of connected LLCs, also donated at least $80,000 to Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Much of that came just before Cuomo took office, and the company was preparing to seek state approvals for its Hudson Valley power plant.

Maybe it's all good, maybe nothing funky went on here.

But the appearances are that CPV got approval for a natural gas-fired plant even though the administration was trying to move away from fossil fuels toward renewable energy perhaps because they were sending money to Cuomo (via donations) and to former Cuomo's aides, Joe Percoco and Todd Howe (via consulting fees.)

No smoking gun but plenty of questions that need to be answered, that's for sure.

Cuomo Got $247,000 From Company/People Tied To Corruption Probe, Donor's Son Got Job In Cuomo Administration

How's this for an appearance of, well, trouble for Cuomo?

People and entities associated with a company that's reportedly part of a federal investigation into a close associate of Gov. Andrew Cuomo have given at least a quarter million dollars in donations to Cuomo's campaign fund, records show.

COR Development Co. LLC is being looked at by U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara's office in conjunction with an inquiry into potentially undisclosed conflicts of interest involving a former top Cuomo aide, Joe Percoco, who left the administration in January, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The probe is focused on whether Percoco received undisclosed outside income from firms doing business with New York government.

Steven F. Aiello, COR Development's president and management member, has given Cuomo $65,000 in his own name since the beginning of the governor's first term in 2011, and his wife, Lori, gave $25,000. Three limited liability companies sharing a Fayetteville address gave a collective of more than $92,000, records show, and at least $65,000 in other gifts can also be tied to the company.

A young policy aide in the Cuomo administration, Steven L. Aiello, is Steven F. Aiello's son, a Cuomo spokesman confirmed. He had previously worked at the state Division of Homes and Community Renewal, and also worked as director of operations for Cuomo's 2014 reelection bid, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Given that COR is under the microscope by the feds in the Percoco investigation, you have to think that the donations to Cuomo and the job for the donor's son will get a looksie too.

Which is not good news for Andrew Cuomo - especially since his pal Joe Percoco may need to, you know, trade something in return for leniency if a corruption case is brought against him.

The Beginning Of The End For Andrew Cuomo?

Fred Dicker writes that it could be:

It’s a “devastating turning point” and possibly the “beginning of the end” of Gov. Cuomo’s 30-plus-year political career. 

That’s the profound impact of US Attorney Preet Bharara’s corruption probe of Cuomo’s longtime friend and top aide Joe Percoco — who was tighter with the governor than even members of his own family, top state Democrats told The Post. 

“Joe was even closer to Cuomo than [girlfriend] Sandra Lee, closer than his sisters and even his brother Chris. Joe was always there with him, for God’s sake,’’ said a prominent Democrat who has known Cuomo for years. 

In a move widely seen as a pre-emptive effort to put his own “spin’’ on the federal probe, Cuomo announced late Friday that an investigation was being launched into “undisclosed conflicts of interest by some individuals which may have deceived state employees’’ involved in economic development programs. 

The announcement, which came as Bharara’s probe of Percoco became public, stunned many close to Cuomo because it appeared that the governor was, as a Cuomo administration source put it, “just throwing Joe under the bus, which seemed incredible to everyone and suggested how serious all of this is.’’ 

Administration insiders quickly began asking if Percoco — whose career and relationship with the governor goes back to the days of Gov. Mario Cuomo — could have, as investigators suspect, illegally pocketed some $150,000 from contractors without Cuomo knowing about it.

“Do you think Joe would have done something like this without checking with Andrew and letting him know what was happening?’’ asked a longtime Cuomo associate.

“I find that impossible to believe,’’ the source continued.

I do too - nobody micromanages more than Cuomo, so it's hard to believe that he didn't know about the Buffalo Billion malfeasance and it's hard to believe that he didn't know about Percoco's double dealing.

In addition, Erica Orden at the Wall Street Journal has reported that Percoco continued to act in an official role for Cuomo even though he was no longer working for him and had taken a job working for Madison Square Garden Co.

This official role had Percoco doing some cajoling and arm-twisting during the budget negotiations in March as well as stage managing some Cuomo events including his State of the State Address in January.

Just what was Percoco doing, working for MSG and Governor Cuomo at the same time?

I dunno, but I bet Joe does - and maybe Preet will soon too:

Another huge question hovering over the governor is whether Percoco, privy for years to the intimate workings of the Cuomo administration, might have information that would be of interest to Bharara — which he might be willing to trade for leniency.

In the end, here's how it all could shake out:

“This is a devastating turning point for Andrew that could be the beginning of the end’’ of his career, said a Democrat who once counted himself among Cuomo’s strongest supporters.

Given the number of things Cuomo's on the hook for here - Buffalo Billion malfeasance, corruption by his top aide Percoco and by another former staffer, Todd Howe, the apparent conflict of interest of Percoco working for MSG and Cuomo simultaneously, and questions around what Percoco might be willing to do for a lighter sentence - I would say there really is potential for this to be the end of Cuomo's career.

That may seem like hyperbole, but when you look at the confluence of events and stories we've seen on Cuomo and the people around him since Friday, he's got serious, serious trouble and it's difficult to see how he bullshits his way out of it the way he has in the past.

Cuomo wants to run for president in the future, he wants to be considered for a prime slot speaking at this year's Democratic National Convention.

Given the mess he's in now, I would be surprised he gets the latter, let alone the former.

Cuomo Must Answer Why Corrupt Former Aide Was Still Working For Him

Erica Orden wrote in the Wall Street Journal on April 21 that Governor Cuomo's former aide, Joe Percoco, was pretty much still working for the governor even though he had officially stepped down from his government job and was supposed to be working a new gig in the private sector.

Percoco was still attending Cuomo's government functions, still wearing his official badge, still seemingly managing some of Cuomo's affairs even though he was working for Madison Square Garden, not the governor.

With Percoco now in the sights of federal prosecutors over corruption, Orden reports that Percoco was not only still attending Cuomo's government functions badged up like he was still a government employee, he was also pushing Cuomo's political agenda behind the scenes as late as last month during the budget negotiations:

In recent months, while working in the private sector as a top executive at Madison Square Garden Co., Joseph Percoco, a former senior staff member for Gov. Andrew Cuomo, has continued to aid the governor at public events.

He hasn’t stopped there.

Behind the scenes, Mr. Percoco has also advocated on behalf of the Democratic governor before the state legislature and has directed government events while presenting himself as a current member of the executive chamber, according to people familiar with the matter.

Those actions provoke concerns among some ethics watchdogs about his competing public- and private-sector interests, particularly with regard to matters in which Madison Square Garden has a stake.

According to people involved in the process, Mr. Percoco, who began his job as a senior vice president at Madison Square Garden in early January, privately operated in late March on behalf of Mr. Cuomo during budget negotiations.

The revelation of Mr. Percoco’s role in budget talks comes as he is under federal investigation for possible conflicts of interest involving payments from companies with business before the state during his time working for the governor, according to people familiar with the matter. In response, Mr. Percoco’s lawyer has called him a “dedicated and effective public servant.”

Governor Cuomo has been hiding since news surfaced that his former aide - described by Cuomo as like a brother to him - has been revealed to be under federal investigation for corruption.

Cuomo must be called to account for why it is Percoco was still doing the governor's bidding as late as Marchduring the budget negotiations - especially because Percoco's new bosses at MSG had business before the state.

Here's Orden again:

Since shifting to the private sector, Mr. Percoco has been active in other ways behind the scenes for Mr. Cuomo and his administration. In January, he directed top elected officials gathered backstage for Mr. Cuomo’s State of the State address on their roles in the program, according to people who were present.

Mr. Percoco was the only person in the room not on the state payroll, these people said. The Wall Street Journal previously reported that he attended the speech sporting government staff credentials.

His appearance backstage caused a stir. Some huddled there were confused about whether Mr. Percoco had begun his new job and, if so, why he appeared to be directing state officials on Mr. Cuomo’s behalf. The address took place Jan. 13; according to the state Comptroller’s records, Mr. Percoco went off the state payroll on Jan. 4, the same day he started employment at Madison Square Garden.

His new employer, meanwhile, had an interest in the substance of the event Mr. Percoco was helping to facilitate. Besides issues such as taxation and the minimum wage, the address contained proposals explicitly linked to the company, most prominently the overhaul of Penn Station.

Mr. Cuomo’s plan for the station included the possibility of demolishing a theater on Eighth Avenue owned by Madison Square Garden.

A few days earlier, on Jan. 6, Mr. Cuomo had frustrated many advocates of a Penn Station renovation when he announced bids would be sought for the revamp but laid out few details, though he did say that any plan that called for moving the Garden was a non-starter. That is an outcome Madison Square Garden Co. had long sought.

Mr. Kelly, the Cuomo spokesman, said the decision to keep the Garden put was simply the most practical and that moving it would have required “an astronomical sum of money.”

Mr. Percoco had also worked at that event—which took place at the Garden—on behalf of Madison Square Garden. Thus, within the span of a week, Mr. Percoco apparently operated at two different government events concerning a topic of interest to Madison Square Garden, once representing his current employer and once representing his former.

Man, if that doesn't have at the very least an appearance of conflict of interest and double dealing, I dunno what does.

When Orden first wrote up the Percoco story on April 21, one of Cuomo's flying attack monkeys responded that it was absurd for the WSJ to allege that Percoco and Cuomo were doing anything wrong by having the former aide still involved with Cuomo's official work.

With Percoco under federal investigation for corruption and with Percoco's role with Cuomo clearly a complex one, there is nothing absurd about asking questions about these matters.

What was Percoco doing still pushing the governor's agenda even though he was officially working for MSG?

Why was Percoco badged up like a state employee when he was no longer working for the governor?

What conversations, if any, did Percoco and the governor have about MSG and Penn Station after it became clear Percoco would be working for the Garden?

Finally, why won't Cuomo answer these questions instead of having his attack monkeys go into assault mode when questioned by the press?

I won't hold my breath that Cuomo answers any of my questions, but you can bet Preet Bharara and the federal investigators looking into Percoco are not unaware of the work Percoco has been doing for the governor since he officially starting working for MSG and will be asking questions as well.

And of course Bharara has subpoena power, so those questions tend to get answered one way or another.

How Could Control Freak Cuomo Be Unaware Of Buffalo Billion Malfeasance?

So the "control freaks control freak" somehow has no idea what's going on in his office? Gimme a break #CorruptCuomo https://t.co/8dM5vko5RG

— Steve McLaughlin (@SteveMcNY) April 30, 2016

That's Assemblyman Steve McLaughlin tweeting what everybody in Albany knows about Andrew Cuomo - that NOTHING happens in his administration that he doesn't know about.

Here's Glenn Thrush in the Washington Post hitting a similar note in his review of the Shnayerson biography of Cuomo, The Contender:

Cuomo’s 2010 landslide election as governor revealed him to be a control freak’s control freak — in the inside-government parlance of D.C. and Albany, a principal who behaved like staff. During the best of times, that approach served noble purposes: To squeeze the final six votes needed to pass same-sex marriage in 2011, he offered a Mario-like appeal to posterity and morality. “Where in history do you want to be in this story?” he asked one Democrat who eventually voted for the measure.

This is what Americans allegedly want in a leader: someone who is willing to break gridlock and impose bipartisan order on chaos. But they don’t want too much of it, and Cuomo too often skirts the line between management and mania.

Compared with President Obama, who is so allergic to chatting up legislators that aides have to hector him to pick up the phone, Cuomo is admirably hands-on and willing to stake political capital on bold action (although Shnayerson’s repeated comparisons to LBJ are over the top). But Cuomo’s style can be too overtly manipulative — it’s not enough to wield power; he seems to want lesser men and women to bend to his will.

If one single action defined — and diminished — Cuomo, it was his ham-fisted attempt to control the Moreland Commission, an anti-corruption panel he created to probe misdeeds in the ever-corrupt state legislature. In 2013, he promised the commission unfettered investigative power — only to kill it a year later, after it began to probe the political dealings of his top aides. Shnayerson concisely details this crucial part of the story, arguably the most important episode of Cuomo’s three-decade career, but offers little new information to augment the excellent newspaper coverage.

No charges have been filed against any of Cuomo’s aides. But a serious presidential contender would be certain to face relentless questioning on the matter. Cuomo would also face scrutiny of his recent decisions to purge the state’s e-mail servers and exempt his live-in girlfriend from state financial-disclosure laws.

This compulsion to control everything around him isn’t limited to governing. Shnayerson should know. In 2012, the governor summoned him to an oyster bar on the East Side of Manhattan to make a stunning offer: Ditch the idea of writing an independent biography, Cuomo said, and co-write my book — I’ll give you complete access to my family, staff and former business associates. “Thank God I didn’t do that,” Shnayerson told the Wall Street Journal this month. “I think it would have been a hellish experience.”

Shnayerson made the right call. But it would have added greatly to this interesting, if incomplete, portrait of a power-obsessed politician if he had included that story in his book. 

The governor's office was just hit with a subpoena related to Preet Bharara's investigation of Cuomo's vaunted Buffalo Billion Project and news that two of Cuomo's former aides - including someone whom he described as so close to his family that his father considered him a "third son" - are under the microscope for corruption.

After news broke Friday about more Buffalo Billion subpoenas and the feds eyeing Cuomo's inner circle, Cuomo's office issued the following press release that acknowledged there was indeed a problem with his Buffalo Billion Project:

“The state has reason to believe that in certain circumstances and regulatory approvals they have been defrauded by improper rigging and failures to disclose potential conflicts of interests by lobbyists and former state employees,” stated Bart M. Schwartz, a former federal prosecutor retained by the Cuomo administration.

This was quite an admission, since for a long time now, Cuomo and his minions were claiming the Buffalo Billion Project was the swellest thing since the Hoover Dam (see here and here, for example) - this despite multiple reports of a federal investigation into the project by Preet Bharara for alleged bid rigging and associated corruption (though to be fair, Cuomo did acknowledge back in September that he would be open to changes to the state contracting business if Bharara's probe found any malfeasance.)

Cuomo even wrote about the Buffalo Billion in his own book, All Things Possible, claiming it was a model program for revitalization for other upstate and western New York urban areas:

Gov. Andrew Cuomo's new book spends three of its nearly 500 pages espousing his focus on improving Buffalo, which he says has been "New York's biggest economic challenge."

The books rehashes most of his argument why Buffalo needed $1 billion in state aid more than other upstate cities, which are also struggling. He also reiterated a point he's made recently: He wants to focus his attention to other upstate cities in a second term.

He continues, "Rochester, Syracuse, Utica, Watertown and others merit their own version of the Buffalo model. Buffalo showed that the approach works -- in the most difficult application. These intensive economic models take tremendous time, energy, and expertise, and my administration is committed to them."

...

Cuomo reiterated his points in the book to reporters last month, saying Buffalo is a template of what can be done across upstate. He said Buffalo's problems -- the city is about half the size it was in the 1950s -- was most acute.

"You saw young people leave, you saw companies leave, and there was a general assumption that the upstate New York economy was irredeemable," Cuomo said. "And we said, ‘We deny that assumption and we’re going to prove it,' and we went to the hardest hit economy in the state of New York, and that was Buffalo.'"

He said he's put more focus on upstate New York than any other governor in recent times, saying as the economy struggled and the population dwindled, the area had lost its clout with New York political leaders.

"It’s undeniable that upstate New York is doing better. It’s undeniable. It’s in the numbers," Cuomo continued. "I want to use that next year and bring that same kind of intensity to the other cities."

Given how much time, energy and words Cuomo has given to defending the Buffalo Billion Project and given his penchant for controlling everything that happens in his administration, it is curious that somehow Cuomo was unaware of the malfeasance that he now acknowledges via a statement that “The state has reason to believe that in certain circumstances and regulatory approvals they have been defrauded by improper rigging and failures to disclose potential conflicts of interests by lobbyists and former state employees."

How could Andrew Cuomo, the "control freak's control freak," the man who "skirts the line between management and mania" with a compulsion to control everything not know what was going on in his signature Buffalo Billion Project?

You can bet Andrew's spending the weekend in his darkened room trying to figure out a plausible way to answer that very question, because it is one that is not only being asked by Cuomo agnostics like Steve McLaughlin or bloggers like myself, but by federal investigators looking into the mess and hitting his office and others around him with subpoenas.

Alas for Andrew, the investigators looking into the scandal are less likely to buy his bullshit than the public at large so far when it comes to claims of ignorance over Buffalo Billion malfeasance and corruption.

Campaign Finance Investigation Focuses On UFT And NYSUT Donations In Buffalo

Just up in the last hour at the Buffalo News:

Erie County prosecutors are asking questions about campaign donations to a Buffalo-based State Senate race in 2014 as part of a burgeoning statewide investigation that extends to the mayor of New York City.

Acting Erie County District Attorney Michael J. Flaherty Jr. said he will not discuss details, but acknowledged his office is involved. Sources familiar with Flaherty’s effort say it revolves around the 60th District race between Republican Mark J. Grisanti and Democrat Marc C. Panepinto, which Panepinto won.

...

It is expected Bonanno’s investigation will center on whether any illegal coordination occurred between contributing committees and individual campaigns. Suggestions of such activity surfaced during the 2014 campaign, according to Erie County Republican Elections Commissioner Ralph M. Mohr.

“There were complaints that there was coordination between the teachers union and the Panepinto campaign,” Mohr said, “in the general campaign and specifically with signs.

“But there was never any formal complaint,” he added.

It is also expected that transactions The Buffalo News reported last July between the Erie County Democratic Committee and a political action committee linked to a state teachers union will be involved in the probe.

Some of the details:

The News reported that a significant donation to the Erie County Democratic Committee for Panepinto’s campaign – involving some of the same unions and consultants now under scrutiny – was never recorded. Campaign finance reports showed the United Federation of Teachers Committee on Political Education sent $100,000 on Oct. 28, 2014, to Erie County Democrats. Two months later, the local Democrats sent $50,000 to the Red Horse Strategies political consulting firm in Brooklyn, which was working for the Panepinto campaign.

Erie County Democratic Chairman Jeremy J. Zellner said at the time that the committee never received money from UFT/COPE, a teachers union political committee. In fact, he said he never reported the income and never cashed a check because he never received one.

A UFT spokesman also said at the time that the union cut a check for Erie County Democrats on Oct. 28, 2014, as part of its efforts to aid Senate Democrats, but never sent it after establishing other priorities.

Campaign finance records show the New York State United Teachers union spent more than $1 million on the 2014 race to defeat Grisanti.

Campaign finance law in New York State is opaque and complex, so your guess is as good as mine whether there's anything here for the UFT and NYSUT to be worried about.

NYSUT dropped $1 million to defeat Grisanti in 2014, which sounds like an awful lot of money, until you hear that charter school proponents spent $1.5 million+ in the recent special election to replace soon-to-be imprisoned Dean Skelos in his Long Island state Senate seat (their guy lost anyway.)

Quite frankly it bothers me a bit that de Blasio's getting a campaign finance colonoscopy for his 2014 efforts to win the state Senate for Dems when nobody blinked at Cuomo for raising $17 million from undisclosed sources for his Committee To Save New York and using $10 million of that to fund TV ads touting his agenda.

It also is bothering me that the teachers unions are getting this scrutiny for their donations but nobody's looking at the hedge fund managers and education reformers spending millions to elect their guys and push their anti-union/pro-charter school agenda.

Quite frankly, somebody ought to be looking into how StudentsFirstNY, Families for Excellent Schools and some of the other ed deform/Wall Street entities are spending their cash and the same goes for Cuomo.

Cuomo: "You Almost Have To Pinch Yourself"

Karen DeWitt at WXXI, quoting Governor Andrew Cuomo at a September 2015 ceremony at the Solar City factory in Buffalo that is the centerpiece of his scandal-plagued Buffalo Billion Project:

“Wow, wow, wow,” the governor said at the time. “You almost have to pinch yourself, right, that this is too good to be true.”

Indeed you do.

On Friday, we learned that Governor Cuomo's vaunted Buffalo Billion Project appears to be riddled with fraud - and that's from the Cuomo administration's very own statement. 

We also learned that two of Cuomo's former staffers and close confidantes, Joe Percoco and Todd Howe, are under investigation for corruption, along with a third associate, the head of SUNY Poly, Alain Kaloyeros.

Cuomo is said to be stunned, flabbergasted and devastated by the news.

Almost makes me want to say "Wow, wow, wow...You almost have to pinch yourself, right, that this is too good to be true."

There's a nice round-up on all the Buffalo Billion/Cuomo scandal news here.

Head on over, read it and pinch yourself.

Susan Lerner: De Blasio Just Followed In Cuomo's Campaign Fundraising Footsteps

Ever since somebody leaked a "report" written by a Cuomo hack at the Board of Elections alleging Mayor Bill de Blasio and people close to him circumvented campaign finance law in trying to win the state Senate for Democrats in 2014, de Blasio has been getting hammered in the press as the second coming of Boss Tweed.

Cuomo is thought to be behind the writing of the damning "report" that was sent to the Manhattan D.A. and the U.S. Attorney for criminal referral and the leaking of it to the press to do maximum damage to his "friend" de Blasio, whom he wants to see knocked off next year when the mayor's up for re-election.

One of the most frustrating parts of the coverage of the de Blasio campaign finance mess is that both Michael Bloomberg and Andrew Cuomo have acted in similar ways yet never took the heat de Blasio's getting over the fundraising.

I wrote a little about Michael Bloomberg and his shenanigans with the Independence Party here so you can see how Bloomberg played fast and loose with campaign finance, bribed individual members of the Independence Party for three election cycles and used the party to launder money to be used for illicit purposes during the 2009 election cycle.

Bloomberg himself was exonerated of any misdeeds by Manhattan D.A. Vance but alas, the operative who was helping Bloomberg to launder the money (and instead stole it) was charged and convicted of a crime.

Somehow in all the de Blasio news, the Bloomberg/Independence Party shenanigans never got mentioned.

Gee, imagine that.

Bloomberg was not the only New York political figure to play fast and loose with the law - Andrew Cuomo has done so as well.

Susan Lerner of Common Cause took to the NY Daily News to set the record on Cuomo's own campaign fundraising games that look an awful lot like Bill de Blasio's:

Much of the scrutiny trained on de Blasio feels selective — because the aggressive fundraising tactics of other politicians, particularly Gov. Cuomo, paralleled and in many ways paved the way for what the mayor would go on to do.

First, let's review the facts:

In 2011, the governor set up an entity called the Committee to Save New York, a tax-exempt, 501(c)4 non-profit group that could raise unlimited amounts of money without disclosing its donors. Cuomo and his allies deliberately created the committee in such a way as to sidestep disclosure requirements.

Before closing in the spring of 2013, the committee would go on to raise $17 million and spend in excess of $10 million in furtherance of the governor's agenda, mostly on advertising. At the time Common Cause New York, the group I lead, was highly critical of the private, "independent" political advocacy organization, mainly because of the potential for conflict that such secrecy breeds.

Some donors voluntarily disclosed their involvement — and just about all of them, gambling and real estate interests in particular, had business before the state, and millions upon millions of dollars at stake in the decisions Cuomo made.

Flash forward. The year after Cuomo's Committee to Save New York shut its doors, de Blasio launched a group clearly inspired by it — the Campaign for One New York.

Same idea, same problem: Private interests closely tied to an elected official funding what was essentially a shadow campaign operation, and millions of dollars from businesses, unions and others flowing in, in excess of the limits we impose on direct campaign giving. (One important way in which de Blasio's campaign was less nefarious than Cuomo's committee: the names of donors were disclosed, allowing he press and the public to dig into potential conflicts.)

After much scrutiny, and a formal complaint from Common Cause New York, the mayor finally shut the campaign down this March.

Lerner's not defending de Blasio's campaign fundraising games, just pointing out that they're very similar to Cuomo's.

The governor's office received a subpoena in the Buffalo Billion Project probe from U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara on Friday, so Cuomo's starting to get some heat over corruption, but there's still precious little mention that if de Blasio's dirty for his Campaign for One New York, then Cuomo's dirty for his Committee To Save New York.

Thankfully Lerner is setting the record straight in the Daily News today.

Read the whole piece.

Lerner shows just how corrupt the whole system is in New York and how everybody - everybody - takes advantage of it.

Cuomo Reported To Be Devastated Over Criminal Probe Into His Inner Circle

Tom Precious in the Buffalo News:

Joseph Percoco and Todd Howe are part of U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara’s year-old expanding investigation into Andrew Cuomo’s Buffalo Billion program.

With a new round of subpoenas sent out over the past week, including to Cuomo’s executive chamber on Friday, federal investigators are examining the contract awards process in the Buffalo Billion program, as well as possible other state projects elsewhere.

And Albany was reeling as it became known that the probe was getting close to trusted Cuomo advisers.

No other member of the Cuomo team had more staying power, influence and trust than Percoco, who left his senior aide job in January to work for Madison Square Garden Co.

“The devastation is acute. Everyone is literally flabbergasted,” one state source said of the governor and his executive chamber staff.

... 

“It’s stunning,” one longtime Cuomo loyalist said.

Stunning?

Hardly.

If you followed the Moreland story or the Buffalo Billion story even slightly, you knew there was a lot of funkiness around Cuomo's donors and the bidding process in the Buffalo Billion project.

After all, there was a reason the Cuomo administration had subpoenas to Cuomo's donors "pulled back" during the Moreland Commission, a reason too why they use untraceable communication within the inner circle to keep accountability at bay.

The only thing that's truly stunning here is that Bharara is following the trail of criminality into Cuomo's inner circle and laying out the possibility that Cuomo himself could end up ensnared (for nothing happens within the Cuomo administration that Cuomo himself - ever the control freak - does not know.)

No wonder Cuomo is said to be flabbergasted and devastated by the news that Percoco and Howe are under investigation and his Buffalo Billion Project is a mess of corruption.

Because in the past, he's never had to worry about anybody really going after him with an investigation.

Nahh, he's the guy who uses investigations and regulatory bodies on others (i.e., his enemies.)

But now he's having it done to him.

Stunning indeed - if you're Sheriff Andy and you're not used to being the hunted one.