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Cuomo says his office is clean in wake of more corruption charges
Sep 30, 2016 12:02 am
Casey Seiler in Capitol Confidential reports that Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Sept. 28 that the crimes in the federal complaint unveiled last week by U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara were primarily attributable to deficiencies within the SUNY purchasing and procurement processes. A SUNY president and Cuomo's former top aide Joe Percoco were both indicted on corruption-related charges last week and this is what Cuomo said Sept. 28 in Onondaga County:
"I read the complaint from the U.S. Attorney, and I had no idea that any of that was going on. When you say it was in my office — not to sound defensive, but this happened through the State University of New York, the SUNY system’s purchasing and procurement process. I appoint people to the State University board, but it’s not in my office, quote-unquote. And the allegations are that nine individuals basically defrauded the procurement process. And the U.S. Attorney wrote a very strong complaint on that case and he’s going to try that case. Personally, it’s very disappointing to me, because one of the people of the nine had been a friend of mine for many years — actually had been a friend of my father’s for many, many years. So on a personal level that is just very disappointing and very sad. On a professional level as governor, if the state was ripped off, if the state is owed money and the U.S. attorney proves that, we’ll do everything we need to do to get the money back." Read the full story in Capitol Confidential.
"I read the complaint from the U.S. Attorney, and I had no idea that any of that was going on. When you say it was in my office — not to sound defensive, but this happened through the State University of New York, the SUNY system’s purchasing and procurement process. I appoint people to the State University board, but it’s not in my office, quote-unquote. And the allegations are that nine individuals basically defrauded the procurement process. And the U.S. Attorney wrote a very strong complaint on that case and he’s going to try that case. Personally, it’s very disappointing to me, because one of the people of the nine had been a friend of mine for many years — actually had been a friend of my father’s for many, many years. So on a personal level that is just very disappointing and very sad. On a professional level as governor, if the state was ripped off, if the state is owed money and the U.S. attorney proves that, we’ll do everything we need to do to get the money back." Read the full story in Capitol Confidential.