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The U.S. Supreme Court will consider whether private citizens can be convicted of “honest services” bribery charges at the request of Joseph Percoco, who spent years as former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s right-hand man.
The court signaled Thursday that it has accepted Percoco’s request to review part of his case, in which he was convicted of three bribery-related felonies that focused in part on $35,000 he accepted from a Syracuse-area developer when he was working for Cuomo’s campaign – not on his government staff.
Percoco, who was convicted in 2018, was sentenced to six-years in federal prison, but was released to a halfway house in December.
The court also agreed to take up an issue raised by Louis Ciminelli, a Buffalo developer convicted of fraud related to bid rigging in the “Buffalo Billion” – a Cuomo-era economic-development program.
At Ciminelli’s request, the Supreme Court agreed to consider the “right to control” theory under which he was convicted. That theory allows for a property fraud conviction if someone has deprived a victim of “complete and accurate information” when making an economic decision.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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