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The star witness in the corruption trial of Joseph Percoco, a former top aide to Gov. Andrew Cuomo, took the stand on Monday, telling jurors that he connected energy company executives seeking to build a new power plant with Percoco because of his close connections with Cuomo.

Like Percoco, Todd Howe, who formerly worked as a lobbyist for Whiteman Osterman & Hanna, has longtime ties with the Cuomo family, formerly serving as aide to Mario Cuomo, Andrew Cuomo's father.

During questions from Assistant U.S. Attorney Janis Echenberg, he explained his role in facilitating meetings between Percoco and Peter Galbraith Kelly Jr., an executive with the Massachusetts-based Competitive Power Ventures Inc. that had sought to construct a natural gas fired power plant in Orange County.

The meetings, which took place before and after Cuomo was elected governor in 2010, included a fishing trip at Montauk, as well as a breakfast between Percoco, Cuomo, Kelly and other executives from CPV.

In another instance before Cuomo was elected—and while he was New York's attorney general—Howe said, Percoco asked if CPV could provide Cuomo with a private jet to travel around the state during the final weeks of his campaign.

“He had the respect of the folks in the staff of the governor as well as the governor's ear,” Howe said of Percoco. “He was extremely important.”

Percoco is accused of taking more than $315,000 in bribes from both CPV, which allegedly employed Percoco's wife in a “low-show” education consulting job; and from COR Development, which was awarded a government contract to construct a $14.4 million “film hub” near Syracuse and $90 million warehouse in the area.

Cuomo was not charged with any wrongdoing in connection with the alleged schemes. Kelly and six other executives from CPV and COR are also defendants in the case.

Howe pleaded guilty to extortion, bribery, wire fraud and related conspiracy charges for his role in the alleged schemes.

Percoco's defense team, led by Barry Bohrer, a partner at Schulte Roth & Zabel, attacked Howe's credibility at the beginning of the case and have cast Percoco as Howe's victim in the alleged schemes.

According to court papers, Howe and Percoco referred to the ill-gotten gains from the alleged scheme as “ziti” in emails, a reference to a term used for money in the TV series “The Sopranos.”
U.S. District Judge Valerie Caproni of the Southern District of New York denied on Monday a motion by the prosecution to play a clip from “The Sopranos” to the jury to explain the ziti reference.

In August 2016, COR Development sued Howe in Onondaga County Supreme Court, alleging that he failed to pay back $85,000.

While he was with Whiteman Osterman, Howe headed up a subsidiary called WOH Government Solutions. The firm fired Howe in May 2016 when he fell under scrutiny during an investigation of Buffalo Billion, Cuomo's upstate economic development initiative.

Howe, who previously made a $650,000 salary as a lobbyist, now works as a groundskeeper for a golf course in Idaho.

The prosecution, which also includes Assistant U.S. Attorneys Robert Boone, David Zhou and Matthew Podolsky, will direct examination of Howe on Tuesday.