By Shayna Jacobs
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN SUPREME COURT — A former top aide to state Comptroller Alan Hevesi pleaded guilty Monday to his involvement in a state pension fund pay-to-play scam and agreed to pay $19 million in restitution.
Hank Morris was the last to plead guilty in state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's probe into the pension scheme, prosecutors said. Hevesi pleaded guilty last month.
Morris admitted to selling investment rights and access to Hevesi, who was the sole person in charge of the state's pension fund as New York State Comptroller from 2003 to 2006.
The financial advisor 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 Monday.
"During this same time, as Alan Hevesi's chief paid political consultant, I sought contributions to Hevesi's re-election campaign from, among others, those individuals whom I knew were doing or seeking to do business with the Common Retirement Fund," Morris added.
As part of the agreement, Morris is now barred from working in the investment industry.
A jail sentence is not mandatory but he could receive a punishment of up to four year in prison.
Morris is scheduled to be sentenced in February 2011.
