Cuomo’s Affordable Housing Agency Hit With Fed Subpoena

U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara has expanded his probe against New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo by issuing a subpoena against Homes and Community Renewal (HCR), the affordable housing agency for New York State.

The Albany Times Union reports that the subpoena is part of Bharara’s ongoing investigation of potential corruption involving the Cuomo administration and a number of development projects in upstate New York. Cuomo, who served as Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) during Bill Clinton’s presidency, has been under Bharara’s magnifying glass since the governor abruptly disbanded a state-level anti-corruption commission in 2014.

Both Bharara’s office and the Cuomo administration did not publicly comment on this development, which only became public knowledge when an attorney for HCR acknowledged the subpoena in declining a state Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request by the Times Union regarding the agency’s continued refusal to release certain public records.

"[The] United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York served HCR with subpoenas seeking information that overlaps with the FOIL request at issue," the HCR attorney stated in a written response to the newspaper’s inquiry, which sought the 2012-2014 time sheets of former HCR employee Steven L. Aiello, whose father Steven F. Aiello runs the development COR Development, which has been previously cited as being part of Bharara's probe of the Cuomo administration.