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The peculiar timing of Steven Rattner’s departure as White House car czar has raised questions about the course of an investigation that has scrutinized his possible dealings with the New York state pension fund. The probe into pay-to-play schemes, part of a long-running and wide-ranging investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission and New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, reportedly has intensified as Cuomo’s office seeks additional documents from a firm Rattner co-founded. “Obviously he’s been a player” in the probe, said a source familiar with the investigation.
The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that Cuomo’s office had stepped up its scrutiny of both Quadrangle and Rattner.
That’s after an SEC complaint in April detailed a “transaction” in which Quadrangle struck a deal worth $100 million with the state pension fund after a “senior executive” of the firm met with a former official under then-Comptroller Alan Hevesi. The complaint said the firm paid more than $1 million as part of the deal. The Journal reported in April that the “senior executive” was Rattner.
