WATERTOWN — The prosecution of two COR Development executives will move forward despite last week’s firing of U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara by President Donald J. Trump.
Dawn N. Dearden, a spokeswoman with the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York, said Wednesday that the bribery case against Steven F. Aiello, president of COR Development Co., and Joseph B. Gerardi, the company’s general counsel, will not be affected by Mr. Bharara’s sudden departure.
Asked whether the case was still on track, Ms. Dearden said, “Absolutely. Nothing has changed. No charges are going to be dropped because of a change with the U.S. Attorney.”
Last week, President Trump reportedly asked for the resignations of Mr. Bharara and 45 other U.S. Attorneys across the country. The story made national headlines because the president had reportedly told Mr. Bharara that he could keep his job when the two men met during the president-elect’s transition in November. Mr. Bharara refused to quit and was fired on Saturday.
The two COR executives are accused of giving bribes to a top aide for Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo. They have pleaded not guilty.
COR is redeveloping the former Mercy Hospital site, having submitted plans last summer to the city calling for 108 apartment units in three three-story buildings each containing 36 units along Stone and South Massey streets and about 30,000 square feet of commercial space in two two-story buildings along Arsenal Street.
Last September, Mr. Bharara brought charges against the two COR executives as part of a probe against six others accused of bribery and fraud schemes in connection with the awarding of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of state contracts.
Federal prosecutors claim the COR officials provided money to Todd R. Howe, president of a Washington lobbying firm with a subsidiary in Albany, who in turn forwarded the money to Joseph Percoco, who served as Gov. Cuomo’s executive deputy secretary and was one of the governor’s closest advisers, in an attempt to obtain Mr. Percoco’s assistance in influencing state decisions regarding several COR developments.
A grand jury indicted the eight defendants on the charges. Mr. Howe pleaded guilty.
But the allegations have nothing to do with the Mercy project or two other properties that COR owns in Watertown, local officials said.
COR spokeswoman Maggie Truax would not comment on the case. However, Ms. Truax reiterated that the company “is fully committed with moving the project forward,” although she could not say when the company would make an announcement about its future plans for redeveloping the site.
City officials said this week they have not heard in months from the development company about the project.
COR also owns Town Centre at Watertown on Route 3 and Beaver Meadows, a 296-unit apartment complex behind the shopping center.
A preliminary conference on the status of the case involving all eight defendants is scheduled for April 6 in New York City.
Lead prosecutors Janis Echenberg and Robert L. Boone and two other attorneys, David Zhou and Matthew D. Podolsky, are handling the case for the U.S. Attorney’s office.
U.S. District Judge Valerie E. Caproni will preside over the case. A trial date has not been set.
In a letter to the judge on Friday, defense attorneys complained that prosecutors were moving too slowly to turn over documents to them during the discovery portion of the case.
The government’s complaint states that Mr. Aiello and Mr. Gerardi arranged with Mr. Howe to have Mr. Percoco receive a total of $35,000 in bribes in exchange for Mr. Percoco’s assistance on an “as-needed basis,” including assisting COR in reversing a costly decision made by Empire State Development Corp., influencing the state to release delayed payments owed to COR and obtaining a $5,700 annual raise for Mr. Aiello’s son, who worked for Mr. Percoco in the Cuomo administration.
The complaint further alleges that the COR officials, again with Mr. Howe, conspired with Alain Kaloyeros, president of SUNY Polytechnic Institute, to rig bids for nanotech projects so that COR would become the preferred developer. The allegations also involve rigging bidding processes connected to Gov. Cuomo’s Buffalo Billion economic initiative.