The Carlyle Group is famous for throwing big money at high powered politicians capable of delivering government money. The private equity underwriter (PEU) paid $12.3 million, much of which went to a political consultant, Hank Morris. Morris helped comptroller Alan Hevesi, one of two people indicted in a New York State pension fund scandal. The Daily News reported:
A political consultant pocketed at least $25 million in middleman fees from financial firms garnering pension fund investments. Influence buying Carlyle Group got the largest chunk of pension business. The Government-Industrial Monstrosity churns taxpayer money. Tired of it, yet?
Morris, a longtime Democratic consultant who also worked for Sen. Chuck Schumer, quietly registered as a financial broker just months after Hevesi took office in 2003.
Few people are said to have known of his involvement with Searle & Co., which is located above a Greenwich, Conn.
A Hunt Financial Ventures lawyer said the firm was told before it won $116.7 million in pension business to contact Morris, who instructed it to pay the referral fees to certain companies.
A political consultant pocketed at least $25 million in middleman fees from financial firms garnering pension fund investments. Influence buying Carlyle Group got the largest chunk of pension business. The Government-Industrial Monstrosity churns taxpayer money. Tired of it, yet?