Republished May 11, 2018 - 5:18 PM
Original Publication Date May 11, 2018 - 4:46 PM
NEW YORK - A former energy company executive pleaded guilty Friday in connection with a scheme to bribe a former top aide to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
Peter Galbraith Kelly pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court to conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
Jurors convicted the former Cuomo aide, Joseph Percoco, on federal bribery and fraud charges on March 13. But the jury deadlocked on charges that Kelly had offered Percoco a bribe.
Kelly was a senior vice-president of Maryland-based Competitive Power Ventures.
Prosecutors said Kelly arranged for the company to pay Percoco's wife for a "low-show" job talking about power generation at schools in exchange for favourable treatment from state officials.
Kelly, 54, agreed to plead guilty to the single charge to avoid a second trial.
He faces a maximum of five years in prison when he is sentenced on Sept. 28 and a possible fine of up to $250,000.
Cuomo, a Democrat, was not accused of wrongdoing himself, but the trial painted an unflattering picture of the inner workings of his office.
There was testimony about Percoco, whom Cuomo formerly likened to a brother, continuing to work out of a state office after he was supposed to have left government to lead Cuomo's 2014 re-election campaign.
U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman said in a statement Friday that corruption in the state's capital "casts a shadow over the many honest public servants who do good work in the administration of government, and deprives the citizens of New York of the honest representation they deserve."
News from © The Associated Press, 2018