Former State Comptroller Alan Hevesi may be ailing, but he was still sentenced to one to four years in prison for his role in the state's pay-to-play pension scandal. On the other hand, Raymond Harding, the former Liberal Party head who took $800,000 in fees from investment firms hoping to be selected for the NY pension fund, was let off with no jail time. And it's partly because he's really overweight —state officials noted his cooperation with the case as well as his health problems.
The Post and Daily News nearly run out of ways to describe Harding: The Post calls him a "super-sized crook," a "portly pol" and a "hefty pension-flap pol" and mentions his "rotund ingloriousness" while the Daily News' Michael Daly calls him a "fat rat" and writes, "I remember back during the Giuliani years when Harding was pulled over by a cop for failure to wear a seat belt. Harding no doubt made known that he was a big shot. He also told the cop that in view of his obesity his doctor had advised him not to use a seat belt."
Not only that, Harding doesn't have to pay back the $800,000 he took. Apparently some of that money was used to pay the legal expenses of his son, who was accused of child pornography.
