Percoco trial offers glimpse into Cuomo's fundraising world

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http://buffalonews.com/2018/02/06/percoco-trial-offers-glimpse-into-cuomos-fundraising-world/

Percoco trial offers glimpse into Cuomo's fundraising world

NEW YORK – If they hadn’t heard about it before, jurors in the Joseph Percoco trial received a briefing Tuesday of the much-criticized system by which state politicians fill their campaign accounts with donations from people with business before state government. But, as U.S. District Court Judge Valerie Caproni advised jurors before evidence about donations to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s campaign came up as an issue, there have been no suggestions that the money flow to Cuomo violated any state laws. Still, the story told in court Tuesday by Todd Howe — a longtime Cuomo associate — may have been eye-opening to those unfamiliar with Albany.
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A few months into Cuomo’s first term, in 2011, Howe testified Tuesday he advised his clients at a Syracuse development firm of a need for them to become more “strategic” about “who you reward” with campaign donations. He said there were ways to “get the most leverage” by targeting donations to politicians who could help the firm and to withhold money from politicians who might try to stand in their way.

Howe told the executives, with Cor Development in Syracuse, how donations they made to Cuomo’s campaign could be what he termed “helpful” in building stronger relations with officials in the governor’s administration, he testified. Over the next couple of years, Cor officials allegedly listened to Howe, the prosecution’s chief witness in the trial of Percoco, one of the governor’s close advisers.

Two Cor executives — along with a former vice president at an energy company — are on trial with Percoco over whether they engaged in an alleged bribery scheme in which payments allegedly flowed to Percoco and his wife in return for the former senior Cuomo adviser helping them.
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In June 2013, with Cuomo gearing up for a re-election run, the governor went to Syracuse for another gathering of Cor executives, for a fundraiser. On the schedule: a tour for Cuomo of the one Cor executive’s private Corvette collection. Cuomo would leave that night with five checks totaling $125,000, Howe said. Cor made the donations by taking advantage of state campaign finance laws that permit what critics say are end-runs around corporate donation limits through the use of limited liability companies.
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[nitpicker]

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