Former New York State Comptroller Alan Hevesi has been sentenced to one to four years in prison, the AP reports.
Hevesi will head to jail for his role in an influence-peddling scandal involving New York's massive pension fund, which is one of the largest in the country.
"I have publicly disgraced myself," he said in court. "I have only myself to blame. I will live with this for the rest of my life."
From AP Finance:
Hevesi admitted that in awarding pension fund investments, he "improperly favored" a venture capitalist who paid for at least $75,000 worth of travel expenses to Israel and Italy for the comptroller, his family and other officials. Hevesi also acknowledged roughly $900,000 in other favors the businessman did for him or others in his orbit, including a total of $500,000 in campaign contributions to Hevesi and other candidates he or his staff suggested.
Hevesi controlled the massive fund until 2006, when he resigned from office from an unrelated scandal involving letting his wife use his state vehicle as transportation.
It later surfaced the Hevesi was in the middle of much larger problem. From The New York Post:
But even after bailing out of Albany, he remained under investigation for his role in the scandalous way investment firms used politically connected brokers to win the right to manage the state's money.
The case broke open in December 2009, when Elliott Broidy, founder of Markstone Capital Partners and a Hevesi campaign fund-raiser, pleaded guilty to bribing officials in Hevesi's office -- and all but named the comptroller as the kingpin.
So far the only other person who has been sentenced in the scandal was Hank Morris, a political consultant, made $19 million from consulting for companies who had ties to the state. Morris was sentenced to 16 months in prison for his role in the pay-to-play scandal.