Associate of convicted former Cuomo aide sentenced to 14 months in prison

Peter Galbraith Kelly, the power executive accused of hiring Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s former top aide Joe Percoco's wife for a “low show” job as a bribe to Percoco, was sentenced to 14 months in prison in Manhattan federal court on Tuesday,

U.S. District Judge Valerie Caproni, who said last month she wanted to send a message “heard in Albany” with a 6-year sentence for Percoco, told Kelly, 55, he was “less culpable” but needed to go to jail to send a message to corporate suites and the businesspersons who pay bribes to get an edge.

“I hope this sentence will be heard in government affairs offices,” she said. “You have to play by the rules, even if your lobbyist or government counterpart is urging you to cheat. You have to say no.”

Kelly, nicknamed “Braith,” of Canterbury, Connecticut, pleaded guilty to lying to his company, Competitive Power Ventures, about $285,000 he paid to Lisa Percoco for part-time work developing and teaching in an energy-education program for elementary school students.

The plea came after a trial in which the jury that convicted Percoco in two bribe schemes deadlocked on bribery charges against Kelly. Caproni said that despite the hung jury, it was clear Kelly had paid Percoco’s wife to get his support on a proposed Orange County power plant.

“The greatest opprobrium goes to government officials who sell out the public trust,” the judge told Kelly. “But public officials cannot sell out that trust unless there are people who are willing to buy.”

Kelly, a lawyer, was introduced to Percoco by lobbyist Todd Howe, who helped set up the job for Lisa Percoco and then became a government informant when several clients’ connections with Cuomo’s deputy executive secretary came under scrutiny.

Evidence at trial showed that Lisa Percoco did little — Caproni calculated she got $285,000 for work that was worth $38,000 — and that Kelly funneled the payments through a third-party and falsely told his bosses that a New York State ethics opinion had cleared the arrangement.

Kelly was subdued in his comments to Caproni — apologizing separately to his sons, his parents, his wife, his friends and his co-workers. “I’m sorry that I failed you,” he said to each in a husky voice.

He also apologized for damaging citizens’ faith in public officials.

“I realize I have hurt the way people feel about their government,” he said. “I know my actions contributed to that distrust, and that is devastating to me.”

Caproni — who also oversaw corruption trials of ex-Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and SUNY official Alain Kaloyeros — said no evidence showed Percoco influenced environmental reviews of the Orange County plant, but numerous residents wrote her complaining Kelly had enabled a “dirty plant.”

“Public faith in government is at an all-time low,” she said to Kelly. “…Right or wrong, these beliefs are corrosive to society.”

In addition to 14 months in prison, Kelly was ordered to pay restitution of $247,000.