Kaloyeros resigns as president of SUNY Poly

Alain Kaloyeros, who was suspended late last month after being arrested on federal and state corruption charges, has resigned as president of SUNY Polytechnic Institute (SUNY Poly), which has campuses in Albany and Marcy. 

That’s according to Carl McCall, chairman of the SUNY board of trustees and Nancy Zimpher, SUNY Chancellor. 

“We accept Dr. Alain E. Kaloyeros’ resignation as president of SUNY Poly, and we are evaluating his request to return to his faculty position. As Dr. Kaloyeros indicated in his resignation letter, his ‘continued leadership would pose a distraction from SUNY Poly continuing its good work,’” McCall and Zimpher said in a joint statement that SUNY issued Tuesday afternoon.

The statement went on to say that even though Kaloyeros’ service as president has ended, “his practices and actions are under our ongoing review.”

“In addition, we will continue to cooperate with federal and state prosecutors as their respective investigations continue,” McCall and Zimpher said.

SUNY on Sept. 22 “relieved” Kaloyeros “from his duties and … suspended him without pay, effective immediately,” the office of Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in a statement released that day, after the charges were announced.

McCall and Zimpher also addressed SUNY Poly’s current leadership situation.

“We continue to direct executive staff at SUNY system administration, under the leadership of provost and executive vice chancellor Alexander Cartwright, to serve in an officer-in-charge capacity for the campus until an individual can be appointed,” their statement said.

Kaloyeros and eight others were arrested in a case involving federal corruption and fraud.

Besides the federal charge, Kaloyeros and the owner of an Albany–based development company are facing state charges “for a scheme to rig the bidding process for three multimillion-dollar contracts,” the office of New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said in a news release his office issued Sept. 22.

Kaloyeros pleaded not guilty to the state charges during an appearance in Albany City Court on Sept. 23.

Allegations
The same case involved the arrests of Steve Aiello and Joseph Gerardi, two executives at Fayetteville–based COR Development Company, LLC.

They’re charged with orchestrating the payment of bribes to Joseph Percoco, the former executive deputy secretary to Gov. Cuomo, Preet Bharara, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a news release.

As Bharara’s release described, Aiello and Gerardi, along with Louis Ciminelli, Michael Laipple, and Kevin Schuler, who are executives at a Buffalo–based development company, LPCiminelli, are charged with paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes to Todd Howe, a consultant who Kaloyeros had hired to help administer the state’s “Buffalo Billion” initiative and related programs. 

As the charges allege, in exchange for the bribe payments, Howe and Kaloyeros “secretly rigged” the bids on lucrative state-funded contracts to ensure that COR Development and LPCiminelli would win the contracts.

The attorney representing Aiello and Gerardi says he is “convinced” of their innocence in the case.

“In my more than 40 years of practice, I have never been more impressed with or convinced of the innocence of clients than I am with Steven Aiello and Joseph Gerardi,” Steve Coffey, the lawyer representing the COR executives, said in a statement issued Sept. 23.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com