Reporting from Los Angeles and Sacramento — A politically connected former agent for a Los Angeles-based investment marketing advisor pleaded guilty today to criminal securities fraud as part of an ongoing probe of alleged pay-to-play corruption involving a New York state government pension fund.
Julio Ramirez, an unlicensed agent once associated with Wetherly Capital Group, entered into an arrangement with a top political advisor to former New York Controller Alan Hevesi to secure investments from the New York State Common Retirement Fund for Wetherly's clients, said New York Atty. Gen. Andrew Cuomo.
In a related enforcement action, the Securities and Exchange Commission said it filed a civil complaint in U.S. District Court in Manhattan today, charging Ramirez with violating federal securities laws.
Ramirez and his wife, Annette Castro, were active in Los Angeles politics throughout the 1990s. At different times, Ramirez was involved in the mayoral campaigns of Mike Woo, James Hahn and Richard Riordan.
Ramirez, 48, did not return a call to his San Marino home.
Beginning in early 2003, the Wetherly firm was hired by two investment funds to help them do business with the New York government pension fund, Cuomo said.
Ramirez, a placement agent for Wetherly at the time, entered into an agreement with Henry "Hank" Morris, a former top advisor to Hevesi, to use his influence to win contracts with the two funds in exchange for a 40% cut of the approximately $630,000 in placement fees Wetherly and Ramirez received. Ramirez concealed Morris' involvement in the deal, Cuomo said.
Neither Ramirez nor Wetherly responded to inquiries seeking comment on his guilty plea.
Ramirez is the latest person to be snagged in an alleged kickback scandal that has moved from New York to California. The investigation by Cuomo and the Securities and Exchange Commission led to the criminal indictment of Morris in New York and an investment fund manager in Dallas as well as today's guilty plea by Ramirez.
"This investigation has uncovered a matrix of corruption, which grows more expansive and interconnected by the day," Cuomo said in a statement. "The web of corruption spans the United States and extends into numerous industries."
Cuomo's two-year inquiry has spread to Los Angeles, where two member of the city Fire and Police Pension board resigned last week after receiving letters last month from the SEC asking for information about any income they might have gotten from companies that did business with the pension fund.
