. (
)
It’s the same smelly Albany horse manure!
Genting New York — the Asian gaming firm recently selected to run the Aqueduct video-slots complex after the bidding process collapsed in scandal — has now hired one of the key players connected to the scandal, The Post has learned.
The Malaysian-based Genting signed up Cordo & Co. to a $300,000 annual contract for lobbying and consulting services related to the development of a 4,500 video-slots facility at Aqueduct, sources said.
John Cordo — a one-time staffer to Senate Republicans — was one of six lobbyists who represented Aqueduct Entertainment Group. Genting won the contract after AEG was disqualified in the prior round of bidding.
Cordo’s business partner, Jennifer Cunningham — who has longstanding ties to Andrew Cuomo as well as the powerful hospital-workers union SEIU 1199 East — also will advocate for Genting.
Genting is expected to hold a groundbreaking ceremony at Aqueduct tomorrow for the racino and entertainment project.
State Inspector General Joseph Fisch last week issued a blistering 308-page report that slammed Senate Democratic leader John Sampson of Brooklyn and other top officials who championed AEG despite “troubling” conflicts of interest and warnings that the group was too shady to get a gaming license.
Fisch said lobbyists such as Cordo swarmed the project like “a plague of locusts” under a lax review process agreed to by state leaders.
Albany insiders expressed shock that Genting would hire anyone connected to AEG.
“Cordo was a chief strategist for AEG. He was in the middle of a sleazy process,” a legislative source said.
Genting defended the move.
“Genting New York was unaware that John Cordo was connected to AEG. However, having reviewed the inspector general’s report, nothing negative about his conduct has been demonstrated,” said Genting spokesman Stefan Friedman.
The IG’s report revealed correspondence in which Cordo urged the Senate Democratic leadership to block calls from Republicans — who suspected the fix was in — to hold committee hearings on AEG’s selection.
Cordo told fellow AEG lobbyist Carl Andrews that Sampson should “shut it down” and call the GOP request “hysterical politics.”
But Cordo was not singled out for severe criticism by Fisch.
He even threatened to quit on AEG after hearing that troubled Australian developer Karl O’Farrell had a stake in AEG. Cordo stayed on after O’Farrell agreed to bow out.
Meanwhile, The Post has learned that the wife of AEG lobbyist Georgio DeRosa is a senior state Senate staffer assigned to the Codes Committee chaired by Manhattan Sen. Eric Schneiderman, the Democratic candidate for attorney general.
Maureen DeRosa earns $120,000 as a Schneiderman adviser.
“Neither I nor any other AEG lobbyist ever lobbied Senator Schneiderman or any member of his staff, Georgio DeRosa said.
Schneiderman is not mentioned by name in the report. He said he voted against the lax bidding law that led to the AEG scandal.