Political consultant Hank Morris was sentenced today to a prison term of sixteen months to four years without probation for his involvement in a pay-to-play kickback scheme while he served in the comptroller's office.
Morris, who pleaded guilty to felony charges last November was caught when then-Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's office launched an investigation into the Read More
ALBANY—Two more people have pleaded guilty and are cooperating with Andrew Cuomo's investigation into "pay-to-play" at the state pension fund.
Under agreements announced in court today, former Liberal Party chairman Ray Harding pleaded guilty to a felony as well as a misdemeanor, with the understanding that Cuomo's prosecutors could recommend the felony conviction be Read More
ALBANY—The state comptroller is a messenger who has to bear a lot of bad news. For example, earlier this month he had to declare that because the pension fund tanked along with stock markets last year, local governments will have to increase the amount they pay into the fund starting in 2011, and Read More
ALBANY—Many of the investments named in a pay-to-play scandal under Alan Hevesi's tenure as comptroller made money for the state's pension fund, according to a chart just released by current comptroller Tom DiNapoli.
Since the scandal broke earlier this year--it resulted in the indictments of two of Hevesi's top aides and other criminal Read More
ALBANY—The state's pension fund lost over a quarter of its value during the last fiscal year, Comptroller Tom DiNapoli just announced.
The total balance of the fund declined from $153.9 billion to $109.9 billion as of March 31, meaning state and local governments have to contribute more to the fund. Currently, they pay in Read More
ALBANY—City Comptroller Bill Thompson said yesterday he wants all city pension funds to adopt the code of conduct to prevent abuse developed by Andrew Cuomo, but state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli is still working on it.
"We'll take a look at it. We've been ahead of the curve on the placement-agent ban, and there are Read More
ALBANY—As attorney general, he can't directly legislate, but Andrew Cuomo has created a code of conduct for investment firms doing business with public pension funds and announced that a major firm, The Carlyle Group, has signed on.
Carlyle will also pay a $20 million settlement for allegedly improper business deals with the state Read More
ALBANY—It's fair to assume that no public connection between a public official and the ongoing pension fund investigation being driven by Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is going to last long.
City Comptroller Bill Thompson and State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli—who have elections before them—both began the process today of ending relationships with a company caught Read More
ALBANY—Attorney General Andrew Cuomo just completed a conference call announcing charges against Saul Meyer, a partner in Aldus Equity. Meyer is the latest person implicated in Cuomo's ongoing probe of how the state's pension fund was used as a pay-to-play device during the Read More
The abrupt departure of Commissioner Martha Stark from the Bloomberg administration amid investigations into her hiring practices at the city Finance Department creates, in theory, a political opportunity for opponents of the mayor.
But Bloomberg's leading opponent, City Comptroller Bill Thompson, has yet to say anything publicly about Starks’s resignation, which was made public Read More
For most of the country, news of the involvement of Barack Obama's recently named car czar in an alleged pay-to-play scandal has merely been surprising.
For New York's Democratic fund-raisers and bundlers, it was the day their rarified world fell off its axis.
"We are stunned," Read More
Cohen, who has not been accused of any wrong-doing Read More
ALBANY—David Paterson says he would support looking at reforming the way the Office of the State Comptroller oversees the state pension fund, given news yesterday of a massive pay-to-play indictment.
"That type of indictment is so disturbing in its nature that we would have to take a look at the fact that we're still Read More
Andrew Cuomo is out with his lengthy indictment against political consultant Hank Morris, and a colleague, David Loglisci, for allegedly orchestrating a kick-back scheme with people doing business with former State Comptroller Alan Hevesi.
I’m reading the indictment now, and came across this Read More
ALBANY—Comptroller Alan Hevesi's top lieutenants have been indicted on 123 counts including enterprise corruption, securities fraud, money laundering and grand larceny, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo just announced on a conference call.
"The indictment charges crimes that go beyond the grossest manifestations of pay-to-play," Cuomo said. He, along with S.E.C. Chair Mary Schapiro and Albany County Read More
