May 23
2018
Susan Arbetter quizzes Investigative Post Editor Jim Heaney on The Capitol Pressroom about a recent iPost story on gold-plated health insurance benefits provided by the Buffalo school district. Heaney also touched on the recent guilty plea involving the awarding of the contract to develop the SolarCity factory.
May 18
2018
One of three LPCiminelli executives indicted on corruption charges related to the Buffalo Billion program pleaded guilty to felony charges Friday. Kevin Schuler, a company vice president deeply involved in its political operations, pleaded guilty to wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. A bribery charge was dismissed. Schuler made his plea before U.S. District Judge Valerie Caproni in Manhattan. Under the plea, as reported by The Buffalo News, Schuler agreed to cooperate with prosecutors. He faces up to three years in prison and up to $250,000 in fines. Two other company officials, President Louis Ciminelli and Michael Laipple, are[...]
Mar 26
2018
Susan Arbetter, host of The Capitol Pressroom, quizzes Investigative Post Editor Jim Heaney on the Joe Percoco verdict, the candidacy of Cynthia Nixon and the curious manner in which Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown selected his new police commissioner.
Dec 6
2017
LPCiminelli, the embattled construction firm reeling from the indictment of three of its executives, is shuttering half its business. The company is selling off its heavy construction equipment at an auction next week in anticipation of closing its general contracting arm. Rather than building facilities, LPCiminelli will focus on development and construction management. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter delivered Sundays to your inbox. The company has been under siege for three years, since Investigative Post exposed what federal investigators later determined was corruption in the state’s awarding of a contract to LPCiminelli to develop the Tesla solar panel manufacturing plant[...]
Jul 5
2017
Jim Heaney tells Susan Arbetter of The Capitol Pressroom there’s a “corruption coalition” at play in Albany that explains the failure of the state Legislature to reform New York’s troubled economic development programs. Heaney also discusses the challenges faced by investigative reporting.
Nov 15
2016
U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara says the way LPCiminelli won the contract to build the SolarCity factory in Buffalo was criminal. The deal-making behind another Buffalo Billion project that LPCiminelli had previously landed, to build space for biotech company Albany Molecular Research Inc., bears some striking similarities to the way the company won the SolarCity work, Investigative Post has found. In both cases, for example, lobbyist Todd Howe worked for LPCiminelli and the state-affiliated economic development agency that managed Buffalo Billion projects and chose which companies would win contracts. Howe has pled guilty to federal corruption charges and is cooperating with[...]
Nov 9
2016
Federal prosecutors say top executives at LPCiminelli went to great lengths to ensure they would win the lucrative contract to build a factory for SolarCity at Riverbend. Just how lucrative? State officials refuse to say how much the company is being paid. But Investigative Post has calculated, based on interviews and public records, that LPCiminelli’s fee for the project works out to between $20 million and $22 million. That’s one of the largest developer fees paid out in the region in recent years, because of the sheer size of the project, according to construction industry sources. Three LPCiminelli executives, including[...]
Oct 11
2016
The fall from grace is just about complete for Alain Kaloyeros. The so-called “nano-tech guru” who Gov. Andrew Cuomo has praised as a “near genius” has resigned as CEO of SUNY Polytechnic Institute. His success building a nano-technology sector in the Albany area prompted Cuomo to put Kaloyeros in charge of his initiative to revitalize the upstate economy through a series a big-ticket projects in Buffalo, Dunkirk, Rochester, Syracuse and Utica. But reporting by Investigative Post into the awarding of a lucrative contract to LPCiminelli to build a factory for SolarCity triggered investigations by U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara and State Attorney General Eric[...]