Posted on 08/18/2008 9:52:36 AM PDT by Stoat
Sunday, August 17th 2008, 9:44 PM
ALBANY - An investment firm doing business with the state pension fund sought out former Gov. Mario Cuomo to help it get more business, the Daily News has learned.
Mezzacappa Management LLC contacted Cuomo months after his son, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, requested information from the company as part of a probe into a possible pay-to-play scam during former Controller Alan Hevesi's tenure. Mario Cuomo said he had recently received a call from a longtime acquaintance, famed lawyer Philip Howard, who represents Mezzacappa, a city-based private alternative investment fund founded in 1999.
Despite the pension fund having made five investments totaling $400 million with Mezzacappa in 2005 and 2006, Cuomo said Howard asked if there was someone in the controller's office he could contact to discuss a new deal. Mario Cuomo said the investigation by his son's office never came up. He said he suggested Howard call his old budget director, Pat Bulgaro, who is working as an unpaid adviser to new Controller Thomas DiNapoli.
The former governor said he was not paid for his advice: "I made it very clear that I didn't want anything, I can't be paid anything, I can't represent them."
Cuomo said he helped only because he was told the deal would make the state a lot of money.
Howard, a partner at the prestigious Covington & Burling, acknowledged the conversation and confirmed Cuomo was not paid. Mezzacappa, CEO Damon Mezzacappa, his wife and another top firm official combined donated nearly $100,000 to Hevesi's campaign between 2002 and 2006 and $5,000 to his son, Assemblyman Andrew Hevesi (D-Queens). Asked why he approached Cuomo rather than someone within DiNapoli's office, Howard mentioned Cuomo's contacts. He said Mezzacappa "needed someone higher up" than the pension investors the firm has dealt with because "we're talking about a different [deal] where the state would get ownership."
He said Cuomo told him, "I'd be happy to do you a favor and make an introduction, but I'm doing it as a favor for you. I do not want and I would not accept a fee."
Howard has spoken to Bulgaro. A DiNapoli spokesman said the proposed deal is still under review.
A source with knowledge of the investigation said Mezzacappa has not fully cooperated with the attorney general's request for info. A spokeswoman for the attorney general's office said the request from Mezzacappa "was part of a broad series of requests" and that the firm was "never the subject or target of that inquiry."
The state's investment with Mezzacappa, now worth $503 million, took place under Hevesi, who resigned in late 2006 before pleading guilty to a felony for using state employees to chauffeur his wife.
The firm has received a combined $6.7 million in management fees from the pension fund since its initial deal, according to the controller's office. Even if the firm did not pay Cuomo for his help, government watchdogs said, at the very least, the contact could create the appearance that the pension fund favors political connections.
Spider Aug 18, 2008 9:21:55 AM
Will Andrew (i'd sell my kids to be governor) Cuomo now investigate his father? Yeah, right! This is nothing more than business-as-usual in NY politics. The elected crooks of NY have always made the public believe that if you wanted to see the true organized crime in NY, look for some guy wearing shades and a pinky-ring standing on a corner, when in fact, the "real" organized crime in NY is, and always has been, in Albany!
Looks as though the b.s. doesn’t fall very far from the tree in N.Y. either!
If this had been among Republicans, the national 'press' would all over this and would hound both of them to the ends of the earth for this 'appearance of impropriety'. Tearful press conferences and apologies would follow, culminating in resignations and shameful suicides.
For the Dems, it's just another day at the office.
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