Democratic gubernatorial candidate Cynthia Nixon released the following statement after the jury in the Buffalo Billion trial found several top donors to the Governor and his former top economic development aide, Alain Kaloyeros, guilty on all counts. Another top aide of the Governor's, Joe Percoco, was convicted on corruption charges earlier this year. Percoco, who also formerly served as the Governor's campaign manager, is expected to be sentenced next week.
"Governor Cuomo will say that he had no knowledge of Kaloyeros’ activity, just like he said he knew nothing about the crimes that Joe Percoco was committing in the his own office. We’re supposed to believe that Andrew Cuomo, a notorious micromanager, had no idea what his right-hand man was doing right under his nose? We’re supposed to believe that the master architect of the Governor's economic development plan doled out nearly a billion dollars without the Governor's knowledge or guidance? I for one don’t believe that. But if the Governor truly didn’t know what his top aide and highest-paid state employee were doing, that’s arguably even worse. Andrew Cuomo is either corrupt or he is spectacularly incompetent. Either way, the facts from the trials of Joe Percoco and Alain Kaloyeros lead to only one conclusion: We can’t clean up Albany until we clean out the governor’s mansion. Nothing is going to change until we change who’s in charge."
