Ruling: Ex-Hevesi Aide to Proceed to Trial in NY Pension Scandal

(July 29, 2010) — Henry “Hank” Morris, the former chief political adviser to New York’s ex-comptroller Alan Hevesi, will go on trial for a majority of the 90 charges against him as part of the state pension fund probe.

State Supreme Court Justice Lewis Bart Stone in Manhattan dismissed 13 of the 90 charges against Morris — five counts of falsifying business records, five counts of filing false documents, two counts of grand larceny and a count of scheme to defraud. The judge ruled that many of the most serious ones could remain. Morris still faces up to a 25-year prison term for enterprise corruption.

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo accused Morris, who advised former comptroller Alan Hevesi, of corrupting the investment process at the pension to grant deals that would benefit himself, his colleagues and contributors to Hevesi’s campaign. The grand jury heard “sufficient evidence” to maintain most of the charges regarding his corrupt operation, where decisions about which funds to invest in were based on whether the fund “agreed to pay placement fees or share management fees with Morris rather than solely on the prudent investor rule,” the judge said, according to Bloomberg.

Six people have pleaded guilty following the investigation into New York’s $122 billion pension fund, including Raymond B. Harding, the former chief of the Liberal Party in the state, and David J. Loglisci, the former chief investment officer for the state’s pension fund.