Cuomo Engages In His Own Pay To Play Games

Andrew Cuomo like to play like he is a squeaky clean sheriff who is coming into Albany to clean up all the corruption.

The only problem with that image - it's jive:

A prominent law firm wrote Andrew Cuomo a $45,000 campaign check while Cuomo's deputies were probing one of its members for his role in the pay-to-play pension scandal.

The upstate firm of Hiscock & Barclay, was representing one of its lawyers, Jerry Weiss, when Cuomo's office subpoenaed him in May 2009.

The subpoena ordered him to come in to talk to Cuomo's investigators regarding Weiss' efforts to get a client a lucrative deal managing city pension funds.

The firm's check to Cuomo's campaign for $45,900 was written in July, records show. In that time, both sides were working out a settlement.

Susan Lerner, executive director of Common Cause/NY, said taking contributions from people you are investigating "undercuts the public's faith" in officials.

"Were they motivated by a desire to help a member of the firm or were they really just being good citizens? ...We don't know, and that's the problem."

Last week, the settlement went public when Cuomo filed a document saying he had found Weiss improperly pocketed $52,000 for arranging a meeting between a financial adviser and the city police and fire pension funds.

A Cuomo aide said Weiss "came on the radar" in spring 2009, when investigators began looking at unregistered agents lobbying City Controller William Thompson. In May 2009, subpoenas went out to 100 funds and agents, including Weiss.

Cuomo's probers say middlemen who arrange such deals should have a broker's license. Weiss did not have one when he went to Thompson's office to seek business for a client, G.F. Capital Management & Advisors LLC.

Afterward, city pension funds for police and firefighters invested $13 million with a G.F. fund. Weiss split a $104,000 fee with Patricia Lynch, his partner in the lobbying firm LW Strategies.

The difference in punishment between Weiss and Lynch is stark. Weiss settled the case this week by agreeing to pay the state his share of the fee plus a $26,000 penalty. He also promised to abide by all securities and related laws in the future.

Lynch, one of Albany's most powerful lobbyists, was slammed for arranging contributions for former Controller Alan Hevesi. Hevesi later hired Lynch's clients to manage state pension funds.

Lynch agreed to pay a $500,000 fine and be banned from lobbying the state controller's office for five years.

As a candidate, Cuomo declared he would not take money from anyone who was the target of an investigation by his office, but wouldn't turn down money from lawyers of such clients.

Gabriel Nugent, Weiss' lawyer at Hiscock & Barclay, defended the firm's donations, noting they came months after Weiss got his subpoena.

"We are a statewide firm with a long history of giving to statewide candidates. The donations to Gov.-elect Cuomo are not anything different than what's been done in the past," he said.

Records show the firm's July contribution was more than four times its prior donations to Cuomo; the firm gave $10,000 in 2008 and $6,000 in 2006. The firm also gave to other candidates.

Weiss, a former aide to Cuomo's father, Mario, when he was governor, has given $68,500 to Andrew Cuomo since 2005, $30,000 of which came in January and October 2008 at a time when the pension probe was well underway.

Nugent said those contributions posed no conflict because they preceded the subpoena.

"He fully cooperated," Nugent said.

A spokesman for Cuomo noted Weiss is not a partner in Hiscock & Barclay, meaning he did not help determine who the firm would support for governor.

So the guy who gives to the Cuomo campaign gets a light fine and a slap on the wrist, the guy who doesn't give to the Cuomo campaign gets a heavy fine and is banned from lobbying foir five years.

How's that for clean government from the new Albany sheriff?

I have said it before, I will say it again - Andrew Cuomo is one of the dirtiest, most corrupt politicians in New York (and that's saying something.)

His campaign pledges to clean up government and get the corruption out of Albany are laughable on the face of it.

If Andrew Cuomo wants to clean up government and get the corruption out of Albany, he ought to quit being governor and move to Rochester.