Gov. Ned Lamont said Monday that he did not know about any alleged illegal activities committed by former state budget official Kosta Diamantis.

Diamantis was indicted last week on 22 counts of bribery and extortion. Federal prosecutors say he steered school construction work to his friends and then took a cut of the money.

“It's a breach of the public trust. We worked hand-in-glove with the feds to get to the bottom of this as soon as we could. I didn't hire him, but I did fire him,” said Lamont.

Contractors raised red flags to the administration a year before the FBI began investigating.