Former state senate majority leader Joseph Bruno was found guilty on two counts of theft of honest services fraud on Monday afternoon. After deliberating for seven days, the jury acquitted Bruno on five counts of the same crime, and was unable to reach a verdict on another. Bruno could face up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each felony conviction. Bruno was released without bail, awaiting the sentencing scheduled for March 31.
Bruno reportedly received over $3 million in payments from local businessmen in exchange for the then majority leader’s political influence. The trial revealed that the state senators in Bruno’s senate regularly mixed private business with political duty. It exposed the blatant corruption and complete lack of ethics of the New York state legislature.
Four of the eight counts, including the two on which Bruno was found guilty, revolved around his relations with Loudonville businessman, Jared Abbruzzese. These relations raised the FBI’s suspicions in 2005, when Abbruzzese provided Bruno with a private jet flight from Schenectady to LaGuardia for a meeting with former Governor George Pataki.
Bruno received $20,000 a month, for a total of about $400,000, for his work as a consultant from several corporations owned by Abbruezzese, including the Motient Corporation, TerreStar Networks, Communication Techology Advisors, and Capital & Technology Advisers. These payments occurred before Bruno gave a $250,000 state grant to one of Abbruzzese’s technology firms.
Bruno also appointed Wayne Barr, Abbruezzese’s business partner, to the New York Racing Assocation board of trustees. Abbruezzese was actively pursing control of NYRA at that time.
When Terrestar Networks’ executives terminated the $20,000 a month payments, Abbruezzese, along with his horse-breeding partner and Columbia country veterinarian Dr. Jerry Bilinski, paid Bruno $80,000, the same price Bruno paid for the early termination cost with Terrestar, for a horse considered to be worthless. On the witness stand, Abbruezzese admitted that this transaction was the “global solution” for the actions of the Terrestar executives.
The jury did not find the former majority leader guilty for his dealings with Wright Investors’ Services, a firm based in Connecticut. Bruno received $1.37 million from the investment firm, which collected millions in pension investments from the New York labor unions with help from Bruno himself.
Other transactions involved Leonard Fassler, a Westchester county businessman, who paid Bruno $468,000 over a ten year period as a consult. Fassler was seeking state contracts for his telecommunications companies at the time.
Bruno, in a statement made outside the courthouse moments after his sentence, said “I’m very, very disappointed in the verdict that I just heard,” before being taken away by his handlers.