The feds have whittled down their case against four executives accused of bid-rigging tied to a pet project of Gov. Cuomo’s after deciding to drop their star witness, disgraced former lobbyist Todd Howe.
Over the weekend, the feds quietly dropped bribery charges against former Cor Development executives Steven Aiello and Joseph Gerardi and former LPCiminelli executives Louis Ciminelli and Michael Laipple ahead of their June 11 bid-rigging trial.
The dropped charges were all tied to bribes the feds said the men had paid to Howe, a former lobbyist accused of helping former president of SUNY Polytechnic Institute Alain Kaloyeros customize proposals for Buffalo Billions projects to ensure that LPCiminelli and Cor Development won Buffalo Billions development projects.
On Tuesday, the reason for the dropped charges became abundantly clear when the feds announced that they will no longer be calling Howe as a witness.
“That right your honor, we’re not planning to call Mr. Howe,” prosecutor David Zhou admitted after Ciminelli’s lawyer Paul Shechtman revealed that Howe would is no longer expected to be a witness.
The feds didn’t say why the man once considered a star witness is now out, but he was handcuffed and jailed in the middle of his testimony at the bribery trial of former Cuomo aide Percoco.
Howe’s credibility came under the microscope when he admitted during cross-examination at Percoco’s Manhattan federaltrial that he tried to scam his way out of a $600 stay at the Waldorf Astoria hotel following a visit to New York City to negotiate his deal.
Federal agents arrested him hours later and he’s been locked up in Manhattan’s infamous Metropolitan Correctional Center ever since.
Percoco was convicted — thanks in part to Howe. But the feds can now rely instead on the testimony of former LPCiminell executive Kevin Schuler, who recently copped to two counts and agreed to testify against his former LPCiminelli colleagues.
The decision to boot Howe, however, means the feds don’t have a star witness in their case accusing businessmen Aiello and Gerardi of working with Howe and Kaloyeros to rig bids in Syracuse, NY.
Meanwhile, the feds have asked that the June 11th trial be delayed two weeks after they found 3,700 new documents that they claim LPCiminelli failed to turn over until recently.
Judge Valerie Caproni said she will decide whether to delay the trial at a hearing on June 6th and has only committed to delaying it for one week tops.