New York Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli who oversees the state's massive $153 billion pension fund is accused in an ethics complaint with acting as a public tool for plaintiffs' lawyers in their legal battle against Chevron Corporation as reported by Danny Hakin for The New York Times: "the complaint, which was made to the Joint Commission on Public Ethics, claims that Mr. DiNapoli and the plaintiffs' lawyers had 'an illicit and unethical quid pro quo arrangement' in which the comptroller received campaign donations and other benefits in exchange for pressuring Chevron."
Among other things Chevron in its complaint "points to $8,000 in campaign contributions made to DiNapoli's campaign in early 2009 by four individuals connected to the lawsuit or their associates" as reported by Casey Seiler for the Albany Times Union.
DiNapoli's predecessor, Alan Hevisi, also was a supporter of the lawsuit against Chevron, and in 2010 was convicted on an unrelated matter for steering more than $250 million in pension fund business in exchange for $1 million of improper benefits including campaign contributions.
In the past both DiNapoli and Hevesi have been criticized for retaining their political donors to represent the Common Retirement Fund as a plaintiff in securities fraud class actions as previously reported by Kenneth Lovett for the Daily News: "'There is a problem with pay-to-play,' Columbia Law School Prof. John Coffee said. 'The plaintiff law firms know that to be considered to be on the list of eligible firms, they have to ante up.'"
