By Shayna Jacobs
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN SUPREME COURT — A one-time top aide to disgraced former state comptroller Alan Hevesi who admitted to scamming $19 million from the state pension fund was sentenced to between 1 1/3rd to four years in prison Thursday.
As part of his sentence, Morris will also have to pay back the $19 million he pocketed, NY1 reported.
Morris pleaded guilty in November to securities fraud, admitting he accepted fees for Hevesi and directed state investments to his friends and political cronies.
"Simply put, my actions undermined the integrity of New York State’s government, and, most importantly, have led ordinary people to questions their faith in the political system," Morris said Thursday, "Words cannot express the depth of my remorse."
He was involved in Hevesi's pay-to-play state pension fund investment scam through the "Common Retirement Fund," of which Hevesi had sole authority over from 2003 to 2006.
Morris admitted he "stood to receive millions of dollars in fees if the Common Retirement Fund" made about two-dozen investments individually listed in a prepared statement he read in court when he took his plea in November.
Morris was barred from working in the investment industry. A jail sentence was not mandatory in this case.
Assistant Attorney General Ellen Biben said Thursday, "On one level, Morris' scheme was highly sophisticated... But at its core, the scheme was stunningly simple: You had to pay to play."
Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Lewis Bart Stone said Morris' impact on the state retirement fund was "hard to calculate" exactly, but added, "the evil is obvious."
