Prison for NY developer in Buffalo Billion bid rigging case

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.