Two former advisers to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo pleaded not guilty on Thursday to charges stemming from a bribery and bid-rigging scandal that reached into Mr. Cuomo’s innermost circle of friends and associates.
Six other defendants, executives whose companies had done business with New York State, also pleaded not guilty to charges contained in a federal indictment returned in November in United States District Court in Manhattan.
The former advisers are Joseph Percoco, a close friend of the governor’s who had served as his executive deputy secretary, and Alain E. Kaloyeros, the former president of the State University of New York Polytechnic Institute, who helped to oversee hundreds of millions of dollars in state development funds.
The indictment charges “two wide-ranging and overlapping criminal schemes involving bribery, corruption and fraud in the award of hundreds of millions of dollars” in New York State contracts and other official benefits.
Elizabeth Daigneau is GOVERNING's managing editor.
