The Day In Kickbacks
Another day, another development in the pension fund kickback scandal. This time it’s a guilty plea from Julio Ramirez, who committed securities fraud by scheming with Hank Morris to secure investments from New York State Common Retirement Fund. At the time, he was working for placement agency Wetherly Capital. Ramirez, you might recall, was in this space just three weeks ago – when we reported that he had left placement agent Park Hill Group, an affiliate of The Blackstone Group. Blackstone spokesman Peter Rose told me at the time – and reiterated yesterday – that Ramirez voluntarily gave notice at the beginning of January, and his last day was March 31. Ramirez did not mention anything about the pending investigation, although Blackstone subsequently did its own review (including a sweep of Ramirez’ emails) to make sure he hadn't been double-dealing while with Park Hill. Rose says that Blackstone found no such evidence. Kind of kicking myself for not publicly tying Ramirez to the kickback scandal in that original item, but I didn’t feel like I had enough to go on – particularly because he had told Blackstone and others that he was leaving to hang his own shingle. So let me now double-back and trust my instinct on a couple of things:
