NEW YORK – A Buffalo developer has been sentenced to 28 months in prison and ordered to pay a $500,000 fine in a bid-rigging scheme connected to Gov. Andrew Cuomo's "Buffalo Billion" economic redevelopment program.
Louis Ciminelli (sih'-mih-NEHL'-ee) was sentenced Monday in federal court for a pay-to-play conspiracy in which his firm won a development job worth a half billion dollars.
Ciminelli and three others were convicted over the summer. Prosecutors say the scheme involved state-funded contracts worth more than $850 million.
Prosecutors say Ciminelli and others in his company contributed nearly $100,000 to Cuomo's campaign. The Democratic governor was not accused of wrongdoing.
A federal jury convicted two other developers and former president of the State University of New York Polytechnic Institute Alain Kaloyeros (kal-oh-YEHR'-ohs).
Kaloyeros is scheduled for sentencing next week.
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