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Friday, October 08, 2010

Guilty Plea In NY’s Pension Scandal Highlights Corruption Concerns Elsewhere

A former New York State comptroller pleaded guilty today to one felony corruption charge for his connection to a pension kickback scandal, according to The New York Times.

The guilty plea from Alan Hevesi makes him the seventh individual and the highest-ranking state official  —convicted in the scandal, which involves the state of New York's $125 billion pension fund. Hevesi oversaw the fund from 2003 to 2006
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We’ve reported on the pay-to-play scandal in New York and other states, flagging issues with donations and bribes to officials from investment firms angling for state business, as well as the lack of transparency surrounding the payment of placement agents middlemen who help investment firms get access to decision makers.

As we’ve noted, some of those same players tied up in the New York pension scandal had also done business in other states, including California. Responding to the scandal, New York’s pension banned the use of placement agents, and California’s biggest pension fund, CalPERS, implemented rules limiting pay and requiring more disclosure.

Meanwhile, as the St. Petersburg Times reported today, the payment of middlemen is also an issue with Florida’s public pension fund.

GO HERE to read more.

1 comment:

lmclain said...

You don't think the pension administrators KNEW this was going on??? Know what a "kickback" is?? And now that they've been caught, they can't scramble fast enough to implement "rule changes' and "new procedures" to insure this won't happen again, which we (the public) knows IT WILL. In the meantime, our elected representatives, taking their fair cut of the criminal proceeds, also can't scramble fast enough to reduce OUR pensions. Pigs at the trough and PUBLIC MASTERS, all working together to make sure that "we,the people" are represented to the utmost by their unselfish and unflagging dedication to public service....as long as by "public" you mean them and their criminal cohorts.