Lynch banned from lobbying comptroller (updated)

Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced a settlement with Patricia Lynch Associates, in which the firm agreed to pay a $500,000 fine and its founder, Patricia Lynch, agreed to a five-year ban on lobbying before the Office of the State Comptroller to get out of Cuomo’s cross-hairs.

The agreement is the latest result in Cuomo’s probe into pay-to-play practices at the state’s $124 billion common retirement fund, a pool of money invested, ultimately, at the sole discretion of then-Comptroller Alan Hevesi. He has pleaded guilty to felony fraud charges in connection with the probe, as have several of his top aides and advisers.

The agreement asserts Lynch arranged contributions to Hevesi’s campaign account and helped secure a consulting contract for the daughter of the girlfriend of Jack Chartier, Hevesi’s former chief of staff, with one of her lobbying clients. Pension fund officials considered investments through the client — not named in the agreement — but ultimately did not make them.

“Gifts, favors, and campaign contributions are not a legitimate basis for government contracts or special treatment,” Cuomo said in a press release announcing the agreement. “Lobbyists whose stock-in-trade is pay-to-play have no business appearing before government agencies that safeguard taxpayer dollars. Those who market investments must follow the rules, and lobbyists are no exception.”

The agreement also asserts that Lynch profited when her firm acted as a placement agent before the New York City Police and Fire pension fund without a license. UPDATE: Per the settlement agreement below, this deal was brokered by an unnamed partner in L&W Strategies. The person is Jerry Weiss, now at Hiscock & Barclay, who once served on the staff of Mario Cuomo when he was secretary of state. (H/T to Liz B. for pointing this out.)

Weiss declined to comment, and John Milgrim, a spokesman for Cuomo, declined to answer questions about whether Weiss was the target of the probe or if any actions against him were pending.

Neither Lynch nor her firm admitted to breaking any laws. Darren Dopp, a spokesman for and partner in the firm, said only, “We’re pleased to put the matter behind us.”

Lynch was formerly a top aide to Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who

In addition to the fine — which according to Cuomo brings the total amount of restitution and damages the probe to over $160 million — Lynch agreed to a personal ban of five years on lobbying before the comptroller’s office. Further, employees of the firm are banned from lobbying officials of all pension funds around the state for five years.

Dopp on Wednesday refused to answer questions about how the ban and fine would affect PLA’s business. Federal officials filed a $580,000 lien against the firm in August. An analysis of 2009 data maintained by the Commission on Public Integrity, which oversees lobbying, showed PLA is the second highest grossing firm collecting over $8.4 million in annual fees.

Cuomo on Wednesday also announced a settlement with Aldus Capital, a Texas-based private equity firm adviser, of $1 million. Firm officials gained business with New York’s pension fund by paying $300,000 to Hank Morris, a political adviser to Hevesi who has also pleaded guilty to fraud charges.


  1. md says:

    Wow, 5 years. Way to go gov. They should be back in plenty of time for your second term if you get one.

  2. floydianslip says:

    So, does this mean Comptroller Dinapoli won’t be getting a Christmas card from them this year?

  3. Patricia Lynch says:

    yes, it’s my real name- and she’s sullied it! I don’t need a new blog handle

  4. elmer says:

    Hi Shelly

    Got your girl. Be there soon.



  5. cp retiree says:

    I would love to comment…

    … but after reading this, I was busy throwing up on my keyboard.

  6. Can you say wrist slap? says:

    So John Faso has two meetings without being licensed (although he is a licensed lobbyist and an attorney of course) and for that he get’s the same punishment as this vile person who bribed the OSC by getting a job ( 12K a month!!!) for Peggy Lipton’s daughter?
    Patricia Lynch is a horrible person – of course you’d have to be to get with Shelly all those years. Yuck!

  7. Mitchell Lama says:

    I’ve worked for both the Senate and Assembly over the past 20 years and have never met someone who handles herself with more grace and integrity than Patricia. I can’t recall a time she ever said a bad word about anyone. I can’t say the same for many other lobbyists, many of whom have been running her down for a long time. Good things happen to good people. And for the others, what goes around comes around.


    Out she sailed through the revolving door.
    She made lots then, but now makes more.
    There is some justice, after all.
    Too bad that its amount’s so small!

  9. It all started with a tip to a hotline set up by “Hones” Chris Callaghan.

    If it were not for the tip Alan Hevesi would still be Controller and everyone would still be making Millions and Millions of dollars.

    Now for the unanswered question when Alan Hevesi was toast and Hank Morris and his “BUDDIES” need to make sure that the “RIGHT” person was elected by the legislature aka Shelly Silver who changed the rules and supported Tom DiNapoli.

    I guess we have a better understanding now who made those telephone calls to Silver and who had the most to gain or lose.


    VJ Machiavelli

  10. Cheerios says:

    Why was there not a life time ban on approaching the comptroller’s office? They’ve already shown they have no scruples.

    Come to think of it, why are lobbyists allowed to approach the comptroller’s office at all?

    Most state agencies, when they want a service by an outside vendor, put out an RFP, and qualified non political people review and then choose who will best fit the requirements.

    Is it too much to hope that someone from that stinking Hevesi organization get jail time for their actions?

  11. pundit says:

    Hard to imagine anyone associated with the assembly majority could have committed a crime.

  12. madasahatter says:

    Why is there no internal investigation of the role of other key Hevesi aides in this debacle? Surely they do not expect us to believe that only Al and Hank were aware of what was going on all around them? Why do these people continue to feed at the public trough?

  13. Poppy says:

    Why not block Lynch from lobbying in Albany PERIOD!! Gifts, favors, preferential treatment from lobbyists–why would Lynch’s firm not do the same types of things with other State offices and legislators?

    A slap on the wrist indeed!

  14. Olaf Fubb says:


    But, what of ““Lobbyists whose stock-in-trade” is not “pay-to-play”? Oh, never mind, silly question, eh?

  15. gecannonphd says:

    (..Amorphous critiques of the “way things are done” in Albany do not describe what’s killing the state. It’s an encrusted caste of 6,584 registered lobbyists now awaiting the Albany arrival of Andrew Cuomo. He will either find a way to isolate and disarm them, or he will succumb to their charms, favoring one lobbyist or another until his government, too, is perceived as theirs.

    This gang, especially the top hundred heavy hitters, lives by a code of cult-like indifference to the common good—selling relationships with seduced decision makers for four-, five-, and even six-figure monthly fees. They put a price tag on every hello. They cobble contributions. They push interests as if they are beliefs. They are as likely to be retained to make something go away as they are to make it happen. They engage, ingratiate, invest and convert, carrying the state, one compromising deal at a time, toward fiscal oblivion.

    The shadows are their office. They recruit by whisper. As covert as they prefer to be, filing disclosure forms that conceal, they rationalize themselves as necessary intermediaries, the glue of a disjointed government.It’s a proselytizing mantra that covers the capital in alibis and allegories…)
    Wayne Barrett, Village Voice
    I am not a lobbyist as vividly described by Barrett.
    I met Patricia Lynch once and she was pleasant and gracious.
    But I did not hire her to gain access to the Albany political class.

    The 6k lobbyists that Barrett decribes provide information to the politicos. They are the filters for the thousands of private interests that want to deal with the state. The filtering and information flow are necessary for decision-making.

    The problem comes with the corruption and sleaze that engulfs the “pay to play” ethos of the lobbyist game.

    The state’s common retirement fund is hugh,$132 billion.
    It is necessary to make prudent investments of this money to guarantee retirement benefits.

    As of right now, the total penalty payments for corrupting the retirement fund have reached $160 billion, and still rising.

    Would a retirement fund board making investment decisions be free of corruption and favoritism? Likely not. And it’s possible that it would be more political than the single Comptroller control of investments.

    The retirement fund needs to be defined as a “state asset”, and then subject to state procurment policies.

  16. gecannonphd says:

    make that $160 million in penalties, in above post.

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