Business Digest

LEGAL

Another Guilty Plea In N.Y. Pension Probe

A California businessman implicated in a corruption scandal at New York's public pension fund secretly pleaded guilty to securities fraud two months ago, authorities revealed yesterday.

Julio Ramirez, a former agent for the Wetherly Capital Group, is the sixth person charged and one of two to plead guilty in a probe of alleged kickbacks and influence peddling at the fund during the tenure of former state Comptroller Alan Hevesi.

The Securities and Exchange Commission said it is also filing civil charges against Ramirez.

New York's attorney general said Ramirez, 48, of San Marino, Calif., was one of a number of people seeking pension fund investments who sealed the deal by making huge payments to one of Hevesi's top political aides. Ramirez entered his guilty plea in a New York City courtroom on March 5, but the case remained sealed until Monday.

In the months since Ramirez's secret plea, Morris and another Hevesi aide, David Loglisci, have been indicted on charges that they schemed to extract millions of dollars in payments from companies seeking investments from the $150 billion fund.

-- Associated Press

Charity Sued Over Alleged Madoff Gains

The trustee overseeing the liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff's assets has sued one of the nation's leading educational philanthropies, even though the organization says it was wiped out by the disgraced financier's massive fraud.

The complaint filed in Manhattan bankruptcy court alleges the Picower Foundation and several related entities made nearly $7 billion by investing with Madoff. At least $5.1 billion of that came out of the pockets of victims of a giant Ponzi scheme, and should be returned, it said.

Trustee Irving Picard alleged that foundation founders Jeffry Picower and his wife Barbara -- friends of Madoff for decades -- "knew or should have known that they were benefiting from fraudulent activity or, at a minimum, failed to exercise reasonable due diligence."