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Albany, NY, United States (AHN) – Former New York State Comptroller Alan Hevesi is said to be in the final stages of a plea agreement with prosecutors about his role in alleged pay-to-play schemes involving the state pension fund.

Hevesi is poised to plead guilty to a felony charge, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal both reported. However, the office of state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said in a statement to Bloomberg that it has not reached a plea agreement and that Hevesi is still under investigation.

The probe by Cuomo into corruption in the the state comptroller’s office and the state pension fund, the third largest public pension fund in the country and valued at $150 billion during Hevesi’s term, began in 2007.

As many as 20 investment firms were being investigated at one time by Cuomo and the Securities and Exchange Commission. The investigation has so far resulted in six guilty pleas and secured $138 million in recoveries for the state through agreements with 15 firms.

The corruption involves “a complex criminal scheme involving numerous individuals operating at the highest political and governmental levels under Comptroller Hevesi, in which the state pension fund was used as a piggy bank for the Comptroller’s chief political aide and a favor bank for political allies and other friends,” according to prosecutors.

Two former aides of Hevesi, Henry “Hank” Morris and David Loglisci, were charged last year in a 123-count indictment including fraud, bribery, and money laundering.

Morris, who served as the top adviser for the former comptroller, allegedly took $30 million in fees from the pension fund for himself and business partners on investments that he himself had a role in approving.

Loglisci, who was chief investment officer at the comptroller’s office, is accused of directing hundreds of millions of dollars of investment deals to Morris and favored firms in return for hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of “sham investments” for a movie called “Chooch” that he and his brother were producing.

Last year, former New York Liberal Party chairman Ray Harding confessed to receiving more than $800,000 for doing political favors for Hevesi. He pleaded guilty together with Saul Meyer, founding partner of a Dallas-based firm that advises public pensions nationwide, to securities fraud.

Meyer admitted to recommending that investments be made in a fund in which an associate of Loglisci’s had an interest, and to paying Morris more than $300,00 in return for investments for his firm, Aldus Equity, from the state pension fund.

Harding served as a “sham placement agent” for investments with the pension fund, and was part of efforts to seat Hevesi’s son, Andrew Hevesi, in the state Assembly. He helped open a vacancy in the state Assembly and arrange a six-figure job at an insurance company for the incumbent Assemblyman.

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