A member of the board that oversees SUNY Polytechnic Institute's development arm said he believed the board approved contracts that are now the subject of a bid-rigging trial without ever looking at them.

Asked about the request for proposals approved for Buffalo area developer LPCiminelli  on Oct. 13, 2013, Robert Geer testified: "No, I don't recall the board reviewing the RFP itself."

"I don't recall any involvement in managing the actual process," said Greer, a SUNY Poly professor and member of the Fort Schuyler Management Corp. board of directors.

SUNY Poly founder and ex-president Alain Kaloyeros, 62, of Slingerlands, allegedly engaged in the bid-rigging through his control over projects funded by the Fort Schuyler Management Corp., the  nonprofit development arm of SUNY Poly that receives substantial state funding. A charismatic figure, Kaloyeros at times made more than $801,000 in state pay and another $507,413 from the Research Foundation of the State University of New York.

Federal prosecutors allege Kaloyeros and former SUNY Poly lobbyist Todd Howe conspired to create contract specifications to suit LPCiminelli of Buffalo and COR Development of Syracuse and ensure they win projects with the so-called Buffalo Billion's effort to jump-start the upstate economy.

Kevin Schuler, a a former executive at the Buffalo development firm LPCiminelli who pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate at the big-rigging trial of a former colleague and ex-SUNY Polytechnic Institute President Alain Kaloyeros, could take the stand as early as Thursday.

Schuler is expected to be a key witness for prosecutors.

In May, Schuler pleaded guilty to wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Prosecutors agreed to dismiss a bribery charge.

Schuler's appearance on the stand comes after days of testimony about emails Kaloyeros exchanged with Howe.

A federal agent testifying about the emails revealed one in which Kaloyeros insisted a request for construction bids be tailored to Buffalo developer Louis Ciminelli — six weeks before his company officially saidit would submit a proposal.

"These aren't unique to Lou's company," Kaloyeros complained in a Sept. 3, 2013, email to Howe.

In the same email, Kaloyeros asked for information "like minimum X years in Y, Z number of projects in high-tech etc etc."

"Why now 10 days after they are sent?" Howe said.

The bid proposal that later went out specifically asked for a company with "over 50 years" experience in the Buffalo area. LPCiminelli had been in business at that time for 52 years.

Specifics of the request led Schuler to write in an email to colleagues: "50 years was a bit obnoxious." It was later changed to 15 years.

On Sept. 13, 2013 — four days after Kaloyeros sent Ciminelli a sneak preview of a bid proposal —Kaloyeros told the developer: "I still need the company statistics (years in business, some key projects, including the latest at Buffalo state etc). THANK YOU! Alain!"

Kaloyeros is on trial in U.S. District Court in Manhattan charged with conspiring with Howe and developers to rig bids of more than $850 million in construction projects awarded as part of Gov. Andrew Cuomo's Buffalo Billion initiative.

Kaloyeros' co-defendants include Ciminelli, president of LPCiminelli, and COR Development executives Steve Aiello and Joseph Gerardi, whose company is based outside Syracuse. Both companies were awarded bids approved by the Fort Schuyler Management Corp., the nonprofit arm of SUNY Poly.

Though his emails have been the subject of two days worth of testimony, Howe, who was charged in connection with the case and another state corruption case, is not expected to testify at the trial.

When he testified this year at the corruption trial of Joseph Percoco, former aide to the governor, Howe detailed a range of criminal acts. He was arrested during the trial after he revealed he tried to bilk his credit card company out of the $600 cost of a night's stay at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel.