Leo Hindery Jr., last noticed here for penning an op-ed piece in the Financial Times headlined, "Obama Must Act to Curb Executive Greed," recently surfaced as a figure in the dealings of the New York State pension fund that are being investigated by the New York State attorney general. The New York Times article is dense to the point of being difficult to penetrate, but here are a few highlights: "The state pension fund increased its investment in Intermedia in early 2007, shortly after Mr. DiNapoli, a former assemblyman, was chosen by the Legislature to replace Mr. Hevesi. The increase came after a meeting between Mr. DiNapoli and Intermedia's chief executive, Leo Hindery Jr., that was arranged by Global and Roberto Ramirez, an executive at Mirram Group and a prominent former assemblyman."
And:
Last year, a spokesman for Mr. Ramirez told The New York Times that Mr. Ramirez's company, Mirram Group, was never paid for arranging an investment between Intermedia and the pension fund.
"Intermedia Partners has never been a client of the Mirram Group," the spokesman, Jesse Derris, said in a statement last year. "Mr. Ramirez has known Mr. Hindery for years, and he served with Comptroller DiNapoli in the Assembly for a decade. He was happy to introduce them."
But Mr. Cuomo's office revealed that Mirram Global, a joint venture between the Mirram Group and Global Strategy, had been paid $883,333 in 2006 by a company controlled by Mr. Hindery as compensation for arranging deals between Intermedia and the state and city pension funds. The Mirram Group received half of the fee, according to the investigation.
Surely Mr. Hindery's desire to get the state pension fund to invest in Intermedia was motivated not by greed but by a selfless desire to help the state's taxpayers fulfill their pension obligations to the state's retired public employees.
Sometimes it seems like the corporate executives out there publicly declaiming against greed are the ones that you have to keep the closest eye on.
