SACRAMENTO AND LOS ANGELES — A San Marino businessman with long-standing connections to Los Angeles City Hall has pleaded guilty to criminal securities fraud as part of a probe of alleged pay-to-play corruption at a New York state government pension fund, prosecutors said Tuesday.
Julio Ramirez Jr., a former employee of Wetherly Capital Group, a Los Angeles investment marketing firm, allegedly gave kickbacks to a top political advisor of former New York Controller Alan Hevesi.
The fees, paid secretly to Henry "Hank" Morris, helped make certain that the New York State Common Retirement Fund would invest with Wetherly clients, New York Atty. Gen. Andrew Cuomo said Tuesday.
Ramirez, 48, entered his plea two months ago, but it remained confidential. He is the latest person to be snagged in an alleged kickback scandal that has spread from New York to New Mexico and California.
In a related enforcement action, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced it had filed a civil complaint in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, accusing Ramirez of violating federal securities laws.
"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."
Neither Ramirez nor his attorney responded to requests for comment. In a statement, Wetherly founder Dan Weinstein described Ramirez as a former part-time employee who had "dragged the firm into this controversy."
Weinstein also voiced dismay that his firm was mentioned by Cuomo, saying Wetherly has been cooperating with regulators for many months. The reference to Wetherly "as a party to these transactions has unfairly done grave damage to the reputation and integrity that Wetherly has legitimately earned over the course of many years," he said.
Ramirez and his wife, Annette Castro, were active in Los Angeles politics throughout the 1990s and the early part of this decade. At different times, Ramirez was involved in the mayoral campaigns of Mike Woo, James Hahn and Richard Riordan.
Wetherly's Weinstein is also a player in Southern California and statewide politics and has hosted a number of campaign fundraisers for political candidates.
According to Cuomo, two funds hired Wetherly beginning in 2003 to help them get business from the New York pension fund.
