New York – McCall’s Company Is Subpoenaed in Pension Inquiry

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    former state comptroller Carl McCallNew York – A financial services firm run by H. Carl McCall, the former comptroller of New York State, is among a number of businesses connected to former political figures that have been subpoenaed by Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo’s office in the latest phase of its growing pension corruption inquiry.

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    Mr. McCall’s firm, Convent Capital, was included on a list of intermediaries, known as placement agents, that was released by the comptroller’s office on Wednesday. The list detailed intermediaries used to broker deals between investment firms and the state pension fund during the troubled tenure of former Comptroller Alan G. Hevesi. Mr. Cuomo’s office has subpoenaed all the firms that acted as intermediaries from the Hevesi era that were not registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission, his office announced last week.

    It is not clear what, if any, legal exposure the firms have in the case, because registration is not always required for every deal.

    Other unregistered firms included on the list that have also been subpoenaed during the investigation include businesses affiliated with Peter J. Powers, once a deputy mayor of New York under Rudolph W. Giuliani; Susan Holloway Torricelli, a prominent Democratic fund-raiser and ex-wife of Robert G. Torricelli, the former United States senator from New Jersey; and Kevin McCabe, who once served as chief of staff to the former City Council speaker, Peter F. Vallone Sr.

    Placement agents have come under scrutiny in parallel inquiries by Mr. Cuomo and the Securities and Exchange Commission focusing on the millions of dollars that friends, relatives and aides of Mr. Hevesi gained by selling access to the $122 billion New York State pension fund. Raymond B. Harding, the former vice-chairman of the state Liberal Party, has been named in a criminal complaint filed by the state in connection with the case. Two Hevesi aides, Hank Morris and David Loglisci, were indicted on corruption charges in March. All three have said they did nothing wrong.

    Investigators are trying to determine which intermediaries were doing legitimate placement work and which were simply cronies or insiders being rewarded.

    Mr. McCall said in an interview that he referred one investment firm to the comptroller’s office about five years ago, while Mr. Hevesi was comptroller, but had done no further such work. The firm was identified as Steinberg Asset Management.

    “I understood the comptroller was looking for emerging managers, smaller firms that had not been involved with pension funds,” he said, adding that he did not believe he needed to be registered “because I didn’t provide investment advice about whether this firm was good, I simply gave information to the firm about what they had to do to deal with public pension funds.”


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