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Bruno indicted for a second time, arraigned this afternoon (WITH DOCUMENTS)

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ALBANY — It appears the honest services case against former state Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno is far from over.

A federal grand jury in Albany returned a superseding indictment that charges Bruno with accepting kickbacks and bribery, specifically from an Albany businessman, officials said Thursday afternoon in federal court, where the 83-year-old Brunswick resident pleaded not guilty to two new counts of honest services fraud.

Bruno’s attorneys, E. Stewart Jones and William Dreyer, are all but calling this a case of double jeopardy because the indictment is worded almost identically to two honest services mail fraud charges of which Bruno was convicted by a jury in December 2009. Since then, there has also been an appeals process.

No new trial has been scheduled and Bruno was released on his own recognizance.

He served in the state Senate and represented the 43rd District from 1976 until 2008, when he announced his retirement. For the last 12 years of his tenure, he served as majority leader, which the document describes as making Bruno “one of the three most powerful government officials in New York state.”

The 13-page document went on to describe that the state of New York and its citizens have an intangible right to honest services from elected officials, including Bruno who allegedly deprived “the state of New York and its citizens of the intangible right to his honest services through bribery, kickbacks, and the concealment of bribery and kickbacks, thereby exploiting his official position for personal compensation and enrichment by soliciting and accepting payments from Jared E. Abbruzzese. …”

Abbruzzese, the indictment says, was an individual associated with Communication Technology Advisors LLC, Capital & Technology Advisors LLC, Motient Corp., TerreStar Networks and Bazaguma LLC. These companies and Abbruzzese would sometimes pursue interests that required official action by state officials. This included interests in a nanotechnology company, Evident Technolgies, and the franchise held by the New York Racing Association.

Bruno allegedly schemed to defraud his district and the state from about February 2004 until December 2006. He is accused of knowing he was not entitled to the payments that amounted to about $440,000 and that he knew the payments would be in return for official acts and his influence on other officials.

Abbruzzese purportedly paid Bruno $20,000 per month as a consultant. Bruno was also allegedly paid 20 $10,000 checks for further consulting with the other companies involved. The consulting fees were paid to Bruno’s entity, Capital Business Consultants.

Bruno Indictment Continued...

“This is a gross miscarriage of justice,” Dreyer said outside the courthouse, noting that the investigation against his client began 6-1/2 years ago and most of the evidence is several years old. The two attorneys also brought up the decision from the Supreme Court and Court of Appeals that “failure to disclose” is not a crime under federal law.

“Thus, Joe Bruno was convicted of nothing,” Dreyer and Jones said in a statement.

Bruno, normally very eager to talk to the press, stayed mum after the arraignment.

The two counts have a maximum sentence of 20 years in jail. Other penalties include a $250,000 fine for each count and three years of supervised release which, if violated, could be extended by two years.

In the case of the United States of America vs. Bruno, the U.S. is represented by assistant U.S. attorneys Elizabeth Coombe and William Pericak.

Along with the consulting payments, Bruno also allegedly accepted $80,000 in payments for a virtually worthless horse, which was in return for a debt and Abbruzzese’s interest in a horse partnership.

These topics had also been discussed in the previous trial.

The indictment says the first count includes mailings that facilitated this fraud from March 2004 through November 2004 and the second count is for dealings in November 2005 between Bazaguma and Mountain View Farm.

“Mr. Bruno intends to vigorously defend himself against these scurrilous allegations,” according to a statement given after the arraignment. “However, he is disheartened that our system of justice would allow this piecemeal prosecution to be renewed after the government was told by the U.S. Supreme Court that there was no case in the first place.”

A press release from the U.S. Attorney said the Supreme Court decision criminalizes only fraudulent schemes involving bribes or kickbacks. Dreyer and Jones said the indictment is almost identical to the original case except that the words “bribes” and “kickbacks” have been added. Continued...

The arraignment was held before U.S. Magistrate David R. Homer.


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