This Isn't First Time Hank Morris Had Brush With Law

Hank Morris, who is not only closely tied to Alan Hevesi but helped steer Chuck Schumer to his win over Al D'Amato for D'Amato's Senate seat, has had problems with following the law in the past.

Comptroller Alan G. Hevesi struck a compromise yesterday with the Campaign Finance Board, which then released $2.6 million in city matching funds for his mayoral campaign and, perhaps just as important, lifted what had been a cloud over his candidacy.

As part of the deal, Mr. Hevesi offered to pay his chief political consultant, Hank Morris, an extra $240,000 for work leading up to the Democratic primary on Sept. 11. Mr. Hevesi's opponents had charged that he was circumventing the campaign finance spending cap by allowing Mr. Morris, a longtime friend, to work for free or provide his firm's help at a steep discount.

The campaign finance law limits spending to $5.5 million in the primary, so anyone paying less than fair market value for a service would be able to spend that much more on items like television advertisements or campaign mailings.

Last week, the Campaign Finance Board refused to release Mr. Hevesi's share of city matching funds, which are paid to candidates in exchange for honoring spending limits and accepting restrictions on the size of political donations.

The September 11 in question? That would be September 11, 2001. Even back then, Hevesi and his political cronies were busy skirting the rules. Now, we know that they were up to no good for years. The Campaign Finance Board gave them a slap on the wrist - essentially saying that boys will be boys and that politicians will always try to test the boundaries of the law.

Morris profited mightily from his Hevesi connections, through links to other major politicians and most of all from his pension plan connections:

Since Mr. Hevesi took office in 2003, Mr. Morris created or was employed by half a dozen companies whose main purpose was to help hedge funds, private equity firms and others handle some of the investments of New York State’s $154 billion pension fund.

As comptroller, Mr. Hevesi had sole authority over the fund, and Mr. Morris appears to have been paid handsomely for making introductions: state investigators believe that at least $25 million in fees were paid to Mr. Morris’s business interests during Mr. Hevesi’s four-year tenure.

Mr. Morris’s earnings from pension fund work, along with those of other friends and political allies of Mr. Hevesi, a Democrat, are now the focus of criminal investigations by Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo, also a Democrat, and P. David Soares, the Albany County district attorney.

It's that pension fund work that led to the indictments yesterday.