ALBANY– A federal grand jury has indicted former state Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, a Republican, accusing him of eight counts of public corruption. He is charged with using his office to deprive the pubic of the honest services of government.
Bruno, 79, is scheduled to appear before a federal magistrate at 1:30 p.m. Friday. Acting U.S. Attorney Andrew T. Baxter has scheduled a press conference for 2:30 p.m.
The 35-page indictment of Bruno was unsealed Friday and culminates a three year investigation into his business interests and his long time relationship with Jared E. Abbruzzese. Bruno Indictment
The statute, Sec. 1346, says only that “the term ’scheme or artifice to defraud’ includes a scheme or artifice to deprive another of the intangible right of honest services
http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/061306HonestServices.html According to United States v. Rybicki, 287 F.3d 257 (2d Cir. 2002), the elements necessary to establish the offense of honest services fraud are: a scheme or artifice to defraud for the purposes of depriving another of the intangible right of honest services where it is reasonably foreseeable that the scheme could cause some economic or pecuniary harm to the victim that is more than de minimis and use of the mails or wires in furtherance of the scheme.
Bruno resigned from the Senate in July 2008, claiming it was time for him to “ride off into the sunset” and denying that his sudden decision to leave the Senate without finishing out his term had anything to do with the ongoing FBI investigation into his business dealings.
Bruno had been Senate Majority Leader since 1994 and was said to be the oldest serving state legislative leader in the country. He had made his shocking announcement last June that he would not seek reelection last fall and that he was stepping down as Senate Majority Leader the same day that the FBI removed 30 boxes of documents from his office.
Bruno and his private consulting company, Capital Business Consultants LLC which he operates out of his Troy home in Rensselaer County, were then the subject of an two-year FBI investigation.
Bruno and his use of state aircraft is the nucleus of Troopergate and the ongoing investigation of the New York State Police by the Attorney General’s office.
Born in Glens Falls, Bruno now lives in Rensselaer County which, along with Saratoga County, he represented in the Senate. His wife of 57 years, Barbara, died in last January. His son, Kenneth, once the Rensselaer County district attorney, is now a lobbyist.
When Bruno was asked if the FBI investigation had any influence on his decision to leave public office, Bruno said “I have never been accused of anything and don’t ever expect to be accused of anything because I haven’t done anything wrong. It’s totally appropriate for authorities to take a look at what people do, especially when they’re in higher offices. But they’ve been at this for two years and I am confident that absolutely nothing has been done wrong and that time will reveal that. But that has absolutely no bearing on my life—none”.
Allegations had been made against Bruno involving his connection with Evident Technologies, a company to which Bruno steered $500,000 in state grants from the Empire State Development Corp. Two of Evident’s directors, co-founder Jared Abbruzzese and Wayne Barr, a former co-chairman, are personal friends of Bruno’s and share his avid interest in horse racing.
Abbruzzese was formerly associated with Empire Racing Associates, one of several groups including Excelsior Group, led by Steve Swindal, son-in-law of NY Yankees’ owner George Steinbrenner and gambling magnate Richard Fields, which had been seeking the state franchise to operate thoroughbred racing in New York at the Aqueduct, Belmont and Saratoga racetracks.
The state Lobby Commission began investigating Abbruzzese in 2005 for providing Bruno with free air travel on his private plane for several trips including a tour of Kentucky horse farms owned by Barr.
Abbruzzese allegedly paid Bruno several hundred thousands of dollars as a private consultant and was a client at the time that the firm in which he has an interest received the $500,000 grant, “state member item”, at the direction of Bruno.
Albany lobbyist and close friend of Bruno, attorney James Featherstonhaugh, had revealed that federal investigators asked him to produce records of a real estate deal in which both he and Bruno were involved, First Grafton Corp. The firm was dissolved in May 2005 and Bruno had owned 25% of the venture through a blind trust formed in 1992. The operation was formed to create residential developments on 625 acres in the town of Grafton near Bruno’s home.
Other principals in the real estate venture were Bruno’s brother, Peter; Doug Rutnik, father of newly elected Congresswoman Kirsten Gillibrand, and Richard Carota, a Glens Falls businessman and associate of Peter Bruno.http://www.northcountrygazette.org/2009/01/23/bruno_indicted/