By Dan Murphy
Joe Percoco, a former close political advisor and confidant of Gov. Andrew Cuomo, was sentenced last week for his crimes against the people and taxpayers of New York. Federal Judge Valerie Caproni sentenced Percoco to six years in prison for soliciting and accepting more than $300,000 in bribes from companies doing business with New York State in exchange for benefits from state government.
Unfortunately, for many New Yorkers and our readers in Westchester, the conviction and sentencing of another corrupt public servant may seem like nothing new, or not even newsworthy anymore. Caproni’s comments when she sentenced Percoco seemed to sum up that sentiment.
“Frankly, it’s not surprising that the citizenry of this state has absolutely lost faith in their government,” she said. “There’s so much money sloshing around in politics that even the most Pollyannaish of citizens has to wonder whether any public decision is being made on the merits.”
Caproni then gave Percoco six years – one more year than prosecutors asked for and four more years than Percoco’s defense lawyers expected.
In a message meant for all New Yorkers and not just Percoco, Caproni continued: “If you can’t live on a public sector salary, get out of government. What you can’t do is stay in government and make up the difference in income by taking bribes. If you do, this court will show you no mercy.”
“I hope this sentence will be heard in Albany,” said Caproni, who also presided over former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver’s second trial in which her was found guilty again of political corruption.
Jurors took eight days to find Percoco guilty, which is an usual amount of time to come back with a guilty verdict. Percoco will be able to spend the holidays with his family at his South Salem house, which he moved to after working more than 20 years for former Gov. Mario Cuomo, and then our current Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
Caproni did not fine Percoco, but ordered that he forfeit the money he and his wife gained from the corruption, estimated at more than $300,000. Percoco made the absurd request, through legal papers, to keep some of his ill-gotten gains to help pay his legal team.
Perhaps that annoyed the judge, who seemed not to believe or take Percoco seriously when he said: “I would just like to express how sorry I am for my actions. I live with the consequences every night and day of my life. I will continue to live with the consequences of those actions for the rest of my life.”
“It’s not entirely clear to me what he’s remorseful for?” asked Caproni. “Is he remorseful for getting caught?”
Percoco is the same man who used the term “ziti” when referring to his bribe money, a term also used in the “Sopranos” HBO miniseries. Todd Howe, an executive and another former Cuomo insider who cooperated with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and testified against Percoco, provided emails and notes showing Percoco saying “I have no ziti,” and “Where the hell is the ziti???”
Howe worked for Competitive Power Ventures, an energy company that gave Mrs. Percoco a job that required no work except to go in one day per week to collect her check. CPV had hoped to build a power plant in the Hudson Valley if and when the Indian Point power plant in Westchester closed down.
Andrew Cuomo has tried to distance himself from someone so close to him and his father that at the funeral of Mario Cuomo, Andrew Cuomo described Percoco as “my father’s third son, who I sometimes think he loved the most.”
But after Percoco’s conviction and sentencing, Andrew Cuomo said: “Joe Percoco is paying the price for violating the public trust. And it should serve as a warning to anyone who fails to uphold his or her oath as a public servant… Everyone is in agreement that I had nothing to do with it.”
But that clearly is not the case, and many New Yorkers find it hard to believe that Cuomo didn’t know everything that Percoco was up to.
“He spoke for the governor, whether Andrew Cuomo knew what he was doing at any given point in time or not,” the judge said of Percoco, who, according to media reports, took a trip to Louisiana – to the headquarters of Entergy, the parent company of Indian Point Power Plant in Westchester – to relay a message that the governor wanted Indian Point closed.
What impact Percoco’s visit to Entergy had on the power plant, which is now set to close in three years, is not known. Some energy experts are starting to doubt whether New Yorkers and Westchester residents will have enough electricity to power the county and New York City in the years to come.
The sad truth about Percoco and the narrative behind his Cuomo connections is that very few New Yorkers care to punish the governor at the polls.
“Joe Percoco is headed to prison,” wrote xxxx xxxxx. “At another time, perhaps in another state, this would be nothing less than an election-year disaster for his former boss as he seeks re-election. But this is New York, where voters bear the scars of scandals past and have become accustomed to falls from grace… There’s no sign that Percoco’s sentencing will make a dent in the governor’s sizable lead over Republican challenger Marc Molinaro.”
Molinaro responded harshly to Percoco’s sentencing, as any opponent to Cuomo should, stating: “Andrew Cuomo was sentenced today – he just doesn’t have to do the time. He came into office promising reform and ended up turning New York State government into a corrupt, taxpayer-paid enterprise that works only to further his presidential ambitions.
“In the coming weeks, other top Cuomo lieutenants and donors within the Cuomo Machine will be sentenced to jail time, while Mr. Cuomo skates free, unscathed and un-investigated. Two attorneys general have been too afraid to investigate his alleged illegalities. The Manhattan district attorney is afraid. Mr. Cuomo’s ethics commission, JCOPE, is indeed a joke and no one will investigate his constant election law violations.
“That leaves it up to the People of New York to act,” continued Molinaro. “Only they can prove Teddy Roosevelt’s adage true, that ‘No man is above the law.’ I remind New Yorkers of one thing today: We don’t have to live this way. The Cuomo Corruption Tax that costs taxpayers billions and that wastes billions more on corporate pay-to-play giveaways is optional.”
The Cuomo campaign, fresh off its victory over Cynthia Nixon in the Democratic primary, has chosen to go on the offensive against Molinaro, and his wife, Corrine Adams, by questioning a job she got from a contractor who received a tax break in Dutchess County, where Molinaro serves as county executive.
Adams earned $26,000 last year with her job with the company, much less than Mrs. Percoco’s illegal, $7,000 per month take from CPV.
Caproni also didn’t appreciate that Percoco was paid $35,000 from Cor Development, to help that company’s CEO Steven Aiello’s son get a promotion in the governor’s office, while at the same time getting another employee in Cuomo’s office fired because Aiello’s son didn’t like him.
“That, Mr. Percoco, is not leadership. It’s not setting a good example it’s being a bully,” the judge said.
