Ex-Controller Alan Hevesi and actress Peggy Lipton caught up in huge pension bribery scandal

Daily News Albany Bureau Chief
By Kenneth Lovett

Thursday, December 3rd 2009, 6:20 PM

Stars/News

Former controller Alan Hevesi and actress Peggy Lipton are both said to have benefitted in the state pension scandal

Karp/AP

Elliott Broidy, the former chairman of Markstone Capital Partners, pleaded guilty Thursday to a felony charge of rewarding official misconduct.

ALBANY - Former Controller Alan Hevesi took $75,000 in luxury trips from an investment banker who admitted Thursday he bribed officials to get state pension fund business, sources said.

It's the first time Hevesi was directly linked to the massive pay-to-play scandal that engulfed his office.

Hevesi, along with former Mod Squad actress Peggy Lipton, benefitted from nearly $1 million in "bribes" made by top investor Elliott Broidy to four top pension fund officials, sources said.

In exchange, Broidy's company, Los Angeles- and Israel-based Markstone Capital Partners, is said to have received $250 million in pension fund commitments and collected more than $18 million in management fees.

Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said Broidy covered $75,000 in expenses for "luxury travel" five times to Israel and once to Italy for a "very senior official" in the controller's office during Hevesi's tenure.

Cuomo said the official and his family, who he would not name, received first-class airline seating, hotel suites, a car and driver and even helicopter tours.

To conceal the payments, Cuomo said Broidy financed them through charities and had false invoice submitted to the controller's office.

Sources told the Daily News the official was Hevesi, who resigned and pleaded guilty to an unrelated felony in 2006.

Broidy, his wife, and their associates gave tens of thousands of dollars to Hevesi in campaign donations.

Hevesi lawyer Bradley Simon, who has routinely maintained the former controller had done no wrong, had no comment on the latest development.

Two months before he resigned in 2006, the Daily News editorial board asked Hevesi about his first-class travel to Israel.

He defended it by saying he runs a massive pension system that was second only to Warren Buffet in investing in Israel.

"It was a great investment opportunity, plus I am a Zionist," he said.

Asked about rules against luxury travel, he said, "I've never come across it. I don't know if there are any rules."

Broidy Thursday pleaded guilty in Manhattan Supreme Court to a felony charge of rewarding official misconduct.

While he would not name the official, the Daily News has reported it is Jack Chartier, who had a close relationship with former Mod Squad actress Peggy Lipton.

Lipton and Chartier could not be reached for comment.

Cuomo said Broidy also gave $300,000 to help finance a poorly received movie "Chooch", which was produced by the brother of Hevesi's chief investment officer David Loglisci.