NEW YORK CITY — Executives at LPCiminelli kept the state-affiliated nonprofit overseeing Buffalo Billion projects in the dark about a second project the company was awarded under a no-bid contract, a key witness testified Monday in the ongoing corruption trial.
The company was chosen – quietly – to build lab and office for biotech company Albany Molecular Research Inc. before LPCiminelli had even submitted their response to the Request for Proposals to build a factory for SolarCity that prosecutors said was rigged in their favor by Alain Kaloyeros and lobbyist Todd Howe.
Kevin Schuler, a former LPCiminelli executive who has pled guilty to wire fraud and conspiracy charges and is cooperating with prosecutors, testified Monday that the company was given the AMRI work without a competitive process. Under questioning, he said that decision was made by Kaloyeros, the former president of the SUNY Polytechnic Institute, who oversaw the Buffalo Billion program and is accused of steering contracts to developers who were also major contributors to Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
You can read the story in its entirety on Investigative Post's website.