Joseph Percoco, former Andrew Cuomo aide, transferred from prison to halfway house
Joseph Percoco leaves the federal courthouse in Manhattan after his sentencing in 2018. Credit: Jeff Bachner
ALBANY — Joseph Percoco, once a top aide and confidant to former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, has been released from prison into a Brooklyn halfway residential facility, the U.S. Bureau of Prisons said Thursday.
Percoco was sentenced in 2018 for taking more than $300,000 in bribes from a developer and an energy company in exchange for exercising his clout on their behalf in state government.
Percoco, 52, is scheduled to serve until April 2024 in the federal prison in Otisville, NY, a medium security facility in Orange County.
Percoco was transferred from the federal prison to the Residential Reentry Management Program facility on Nov. 23, according to the Bureau of Prisons.
In September, a federal appeals court upheld the convictions of Percoco and four others in a bid-rigging scandal related to one of Cuomo’s biggest economic development projects, known as the Buffalo Billion.
The project used public and private funds to attract employers to Western New York.
Percoco was on leave from his state job as a top adviser to Cuomo and was working with developers seeking a piece of the Buffalo Billion project.
Cuomo wasn’t accused of wrongdoing in the federal case.
Michael Gormley has worked for Newsday since 2013, covering state government, politics and issues. He has covered Albany since 2001.
