GOSHEN – Orange County District Attorney David M. Hoovler and New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli announced at a press conference on Monday, June 21, that three former officials of the Orange County Industrial Development Agency (IDA) have pleaded guilty to felonies in connection with engaging in, and concealing, prohibited conflicts of interests. Former IDA Managing Director Vincent Cozzolino, 62, of Gardiner, pleaded guilty before Orange County Court Judge Robert J. Prisco to Corrupting the Government in the Third Degree, a class D felony. The IDA’s former Chief Executive Officer, Laurie Villasuso, 41, of Newburgh, pleaded guilty to Corrupting the Government in the Fourth Degree, a class E felony. Edward Diana, 72, of Wallkill, a former member of the IDA’s Board of Directors, and a former County Executive of Orange County, pleaded guilty to Offering a False Instrument for Filing in the First Degree, a class E felony, and Committing a Prohibited Conflict of Interest.
At the time that they pleaded guilty, Cozzolino and Villasuso each admitted that they had acted in concert with each other in a scheme to defraud the IDA through payments that the IDA made to Cozzolino’s company, Galileo Technologies Group, Inc. Villasuso admitted that she had been employed by both the IDA and Galileo Technologies Group, Inc. even as she signed contracts on behalf of the IDA with that corporation. Diana admitted being employed by Galileo Technologies Group, Inc. while he was an IDA Board Member, and filing a false document to conceal that employment. As a member of the IDA’s Board of Directors, Diana voted on the contracts that the IDA had with Galileo Technologies Group, Inc., and chaired the committee which dealt most directly with that company. Collectively, the three defendants have agreed to pay more than one million two hundred thousand dollars to the IDA by the date that they are sentenced as part of their plea agreements.
The investigation into the Orange County IDA was conducted jointly by the Orange County District Attorney’s Office, the New York State Comptroller’s Office, and the Town of New Windsor Police Department. While the investigation did not reveal evidence that there had been direct theft of IDA monies, it did reveal a pattern of conflicts of interest, one-sided contracts, and negligent oversight that resulted in Galileo Technologies Groups, Inc. having virtually unfettered discretion to bill the IDA hundreds of thousands of dollars for services that were only vaguely described and overlapped with services they were required to provide under other existing contracts. Both Villasuso, the Chief Executive Officer of the IDA, and Diana, the Board Member who chaired the IDA’s Accelerator Committee, should have been the ones most directly involved in oversight of Galileo Technologies Group, Inc.’s work and billing practices. Both were literally on Galileo Technologies Group, Inc.’s payroll. This situation was made even worse by the fact that neither the greater Board of Directors, nor the IDA’s attorney, exercised adequate, much less competent, oversight. As a result, Galileo Technologies Group, Inc. was paid more than it was entitled to for their services. Since the IDA willingly allowed Galileo Technologies Group, Inc. to submit invoices which did not contain detailed descriptions of the services they provided, it is impossible to properly audit the invoices to determine precisely what they were entitled to be paid. The District Attorney’s Office required as part of the plea disposition, that Cozzolino, who is a fifty percent owner of Galileo Technologies Group, Inc., and its Managing Partner, reimburse the IDA one million ($1,000,000.00) dollars, for services for which the IDA unquestionably overpaid.
“Had the defendants in this case made the disclosures required by law, this never would have rose the level of criminal charges,” said District Attorney David M. Hoovler. “There is no need to speculate as to what would have happened if these defendants, and the IDA Board, had acted in the transparent manner that the General Municipal Law mandates. Once the existence of these conflicts became apparent, the misconduct was forced to stop. Once disclosure of these conflicts was seen as inevitable, the IDA for the first time, changed their contracts to clearly specify what services Galileo Technology Group, Inc. had to provide and put controls in place to ensure proper oversight. IDA funds are public monies and those who accept appointment to the Board of Directors owe a duty to act diligently in exercising oversight over the operations to the public authority they serve and are required by the statutory fiduciary duty which all Board Member are bound by and swear an oath to uphold. The sad fact is that these crimes could not have been committed had other officials at the IDA acted responsibly. I thank State Comptroller DiNapoli for all the work his office did in this investigation, as well as the Town of New Windsor Police Department who aided in the investigation, including aiding in the execution of search warrants in the case.
New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli said, “Industrial Development Agencies exist to economically benefit their communities, not the officials running them. The defendants corrupted the Orange County IDA through a web of conflicts of interest, false statements and pay-offs,” said DiNapoli. “Although their scheme was complex, their motives were simple: greed. We must have zero tolerance for public corruption. Thanks to our partnership with Orange County District Attorney David M. Hoovler and the New Windsor Police, we were able to bring their crimes to light and recover their ill-gotten gains.”
The District Attorney’s Office became involved in the investigation after being notified by an Orange County Legislature that the IDA was not producing documents the County Legislature had been requesting pertaining to how the IDA was expending monies. On March 4, 2021, after the County Legislature became aware of some of the conflicts of interests at the IDA, and the existence of a criminal investigation, the entire Board of Directors of the IDA was removed and replaced.
The defendant are next scheduled to appear in court on September 10, 2021.
The Orange County District Attorney’s and New York State Comptroller’s Office will be issuing a joint report on the results of the investigation.
![](https://hudsonvalleypress.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Walden_Savings_Bank1.gif")
![](https://hudsonvalleypress.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/FDR-Web.jpg")
