Hevesi Expected To Plead Guilty In Pension Kickback Case

Former State Comptroller Alan Hevesi is in court this morning and is expected to enter a guilty plea on charges stemming from his "oversight" of the state's pension funds, which included kickbacks and favors for access to the state pension funds. This will be the Democrat's second guilty plea stemming from personal misconduct while Comptroller:

Mr. Hevesi has been a subject of a lengthy investigation focusing on allegations that his friends, family and associates sold access to the state’s $125 billion pension fund, one of the world’s largest, to reward allies, pay back political favors and reap millions of dollars for themselves.

Two marshals brought Mr. Hevesi into the courthouse with his hands cuffed in front of him beneath a draped trench coat. Once inside the lobby, he had his hands uncuffed before being taken to the fifth floor for his arraignment. He was to be arraigned at 9:30 a.m. in State Supreme Court in Manhattan, and was expected to enter his plea around 10:45 a.m.

Mr. Hevesi’s plea would make him the highest-ranking state official convicted in the case. In 2006, he pleaded guilty to a separate felony after admitting that he had used state workers to chauffeur his ailing wife, but he avoided jail time in that case after he agreed to resign.

He will plead guilty to a single count of receiving award for official misconduct in the second degree — an E felony — before Justice Lewis Bart Stone, those involved in the case said.

Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's office had been carrying out the long-running investigation.

Hevesi's plea today follows a separate guilty plea on misusing state workers for personal gain (which included caring for his ailing wife).