Ugh

I was hoping to start the New Year off on a happy note (hey, look at that, 1/1/11, first time the date has looked like that since 9/9/99--but I'm really looking forward to 11/11/11)... but how often are things really that happy around here anyway, right?

Steven Rattner, a co-founder of the private-equity firm Quadrangle Group LLC, will pay $10 million to settle kickback allegations involving New York’s pension fund, less than half of the $26 million state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo sought in a lawsuit.

Rattner also agreed to be banned from appearing “in any capacity” before any public pension fund in the state for five years, the attorney general’s office said yesterday in an e-mailed statement. Cuomo, New York’s governor-elect, sought a lifetime ban from the securities industry...

Rattner, who is no longer with Quadrangle, caused the New York-based firm to pay kickbacks to obtain $150 million in investments from the pension fund, according to Cuomo’s civil securities-fraud suit. Rattner also was accused of setting up a DVD distribution deal for a movie produced by the brother of a pension fund official.

Rattner last month settled a parallel probe with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for $6.2 million and a two-year ban from associating with broker-dealers or investment advisers.

Rattner, Rattner, Rattner... where have I heard that name before? OHHHH, right.... here.

Rattner, 58, helped overhaul General Motors Co. and Chrysler Group LLC when he headed the U.S. government’s Automotive Task Force. He said in the same statement he was “pleased to have reached a settlement.”

It's pretty sickening that a man who has so brutally violated the public trust by masterminding a kickback scheme with the New York pension fund was given such an important position within another government-owned entity, especially at a time of great vulnerability. Of course, Mr. Rattner would never take advantage of the public trust again... would he?

[Bloomberg]