WASHINGTON (WKBW) — Convictions in the "Buffalo Billion" corruption case were unanimously overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court Thursday.
The tossed cases include that of a former top aide to ex-New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Joseph Percoco.
He was convicted in 2018 of accepting more than $300,000 from companies that wanted to gain influence within the governor's administration as it worked on the Buffalo Billion project.
The jury in his case was made to determine "whether he had a ‘special relationship’ with the government."
“We conclude that this is not the proper test for determining whether a private person may be convicted of honest-services fraud," the Supreme Court ruled.
His six-year sentence was originally scheduled to last until April 2024.
In a statement, Percoco's attorney Yaakov Roth wrote the conviction, "was an abuse of the federal fraud statutes; it blurred the fundamental line between private citizens and public officials. We are gratified that the Court agreed with our position that he was not a public official during the relevant time period, and so he did not violate federal law by acting on behalf of private clients.”
Also overturned was the case of Lou Ciminelli, who was sentenced to federal prison and ordered to pay $500,000 for his alleged role in a bid-rigging scheme that steered hundreds of millions of dollars to his company, Buffalo-based LP Ciminelli.
He was released by a federal judge after the Supreme Court decision to hear his appeal.
The theory used to convict Ciminelli, "is invalid under the federal fraud statutes. We, therefore, reverse the judgment of the Court of Appeals and remand the case for further proceedings consistent with this opinion," wrote Justice Clarence Thomas.
