By ADAM SICHKO
The Albany Business Review

A former attorney for the New York State Senate testified Tuesday that state senators hand-deliver annual financial-disclosure reports to avoid federal mail-fraud charges.

Federal prosecutors grilled Kenneth Riddett as part of the ongoing criminal trial of former Sen. Joseph Bruno of Brunswick. Bruno, 80, is accused of eight counts of federal mail and wire fraud. He maintains his innocence, saying he received required ethics clearance before pursuing such work. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison.

Riddett worked in the Senate for three decades. As chief counsel for Senate Republicans during his final years on the job, he helped prepare Bruno's disclosure forms.

Tuesday, prosecutors produced a memo Riddett wrote Bruno in April 2001. In the document, Riddett instructs Bruno to remind senators about the upcoming deadline for filing their financial-disclosure reports.

"Forms should be hand delivered, not mailed," Riddett wrote, with the words "hand delivered" underlined and in bold type.

He said the longstanding policy stemmed from concerns that senators would violate federal mail-fraud laws if they mailed forms later proved to include false information.

Riddett testified that he knew little of Bruno's involvement with companies such as McGinn Smith & Co Inc., MicroKnowledge Inc. and Evident Technologies Inc.

Prosecutors allege that Bruno intentionally covered up his outside business dealings while in office and purposefully withheld information from the disclosure reports legislators are required to file annually.

Riddett testified that he helped Bruno's team of defense attorneys prepare for the criminal trial, which has been going on for three weeks.

Prosecutor William Pericak pressed Riddett on Bruno's employment with Wright Investors' Service. The Connecticut financial firm had hired Bruno to connect it with potential new clients, including labor unions seeking to invest their pension funds.

Bruno is accused of covering up these connections with unions, which often had business before the state while Bruno was suggesting that they seek out Wright's services.

His disclosure forms occasionally listed his employer as Winthrop Corp., parent company of Wright. Pericak said Bruno was trying to hide the connection with Wright.

"We try to be as precise as possible," Riddett replied.

"So the goal is not to achieve full disclosure? Isn't the point of these forms to disclose potential conflicts of interest?" Pericak asked.

"There's all kinds of things in these forms. It's hard to know what the Legislature's intent was," Riddett testified. "Everyone who lives, walks, breathes in New York state has a potential interest in what business is before the state. That's just the nature of it."

Riddett later remarked that every labor union had business before the state, and he saw no conflicts of interest with that.