Thursday, March 19, 2009

Carlyle Group Involved in Graft?


The Carlyle Group is famous for throwing big money at high powered politicians capable of delivering government money. The private equity underwriter (PEU) paid $12.3 million, much of which went to a political consultant, Hank Morris. Morris helped comptroller Alan Hevesi, one of two people indicted in a New York State pension fund scandal. The Daily News reported:


Morris, a longtime Democratic consultant who also worked for Sen. Chuck Schumer, quietly registered as a financial broker just months after Hevesi took office in 2003.

Few people are said to have known of his involvement with Searle & Co., which is located above a Greenwich, Conn.

A Hunt Financial Ventures lawyer said the firm was told before it won $116.7 million in pension business to contact Morris, who instructed it to pay the referral fees to certain companies.

A political consultant pocketed at least $25 million in middleman fees from financial firms garnering pension fund investments. Influence buying Carlyle Group got the largest chunk of pension business. The Government-Industrial Monstrosity churns taxpayer money. Tired of it, yet?