I wrote on Friday about the State Investment Council (SIC) suspending a contract with a financial adviser because of questions about a third-party marketer the company employed who has been indicted in a corruption scandal in New York. Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal have more details.
Most interesting is, according to Bloomberg, that the financial adviser and politico under indictment in New York for shaking down companies that wanted to do business with the state, Hank Morris, helped Quadrangle Group LLC win the contract it has in New Mexico with the SIC.
Quadrangle is the firm tied to Steven Rattner, who heads the Obama administrations’ restructuring of the auto industry. Rattner has been described in court documents as having arranged for Quadrangle to pay $1.1 million in exchange for business with the state of New York, with most of that going to Morris.
Morris has denied wrongdoing.
According to the Journal, Carlyle Group, another large private-equity firm, also used Morris to win investment contracts with the SIC. Carlyle and Quadrangle have not been accused of wrongdoing. Both are cooperating with investigators in New York.
But the news about the New Mexico contracts, according to the newspaper, suggests “that the reach of Mr. Morris or his associates extended beyond New York.” Morris “had been chief fund-raiser for the state’s former comptroller Alan Hevesi, who oversaw the pension. Mr. Hevesi hasn’t been charged with wrongdoing in the matter.”
From the Journal:
“Mr. Morris and the former deputy comptroller, David J. Loglisci, were arrested last month and charged in a 123-count state indictment that included money-laundering, enterprise-corruption and bribery charges. Mr. Loglisci’s lawyer has called the accusations false. The New York Attorney General’s office and the SEC allege that about 20 investment firms made payments in exchange for investments from the $122 billion New York State Common Retirement Fund. The investigation is ongoing.”
No wonder the SIC is conducting its own investigation. Hopefully we’ll know the results soon.
A prior version of this posting incorrectly identified Hank Morris as Frank Morris.