Steven Rattner, head of the Obama Administration's auto task force, was one of the investment-firm executives involved with payments under the scanner in an investigation into an alleged kickback scheme at New York state's pension fund, reports said.
A Securities and Exchange Commission complaint says that in 2004, a "senior executive" of Rattner's investment firm met with a politically connected consultant about a finder's fee and the firm received an investment from the state pension fund and paid $1.1 million in fees. The "senior executive," not named in the complaint, is Rattner, who is co-founder of the investment firm, Quadrangle Group, the reports added.
Rattner left Quadrangle earlier in the year to join the Treasury Department. Neither Rattner nor Quadrangle has been accused of any wrongdoing. A spokesman for the Treasury is reported to have said that during the transition, Rattner made the department aware of the pending investigation.
The SEC's complaint says a meeting was arranged between the senior Quadrangle executive and a brother of New York's then-deputy comptroller to discuss acquiring the DVD distribution rights to the low-budget film, "Chooch." The movie was produced by the deputy comptroller, now under indictment, and his brothers.
Quadrangle, through an affiliate called GT Brands, agreed to acquire the film's rights for $88,841, and shortly after that the deputy comptroller told the senior Quadrangle executive that Quadrangle would get a $100 million investment from the pension fund, the complaint adds. Later, Quadrangle reportedly paid the $1.1 million finder's fee to a company affiliated with the political consultant.
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