ALBANY — Hank Morris, the mastermind behind a pay-to-play pension-fund scam that brought down ex-state Comptroller Alan Hevesi, was granted parole in his fourth bid for freedom, officials said yesterday.
Morris has served 26 months of a 1 1/3-to-4-year sentence after pleading guilty to securities fraud and admitting he used his connection to Hevesi to get millions of dollars for himself from firms seeking state pension-fund business.
Morris pulled in $19 million from the scheme, but had to pay it all back.
The state Parole Board approved Morris’ release in a decision on Monday after a state judge ordered a new hearing, claiming the board had unfairly held up his release by “inexplicably” failing to consider evidence in Morris’ favor.
Morris, 59, could be released on June 3 or sooner.
During his latest parole hearing, Morris claimed he’s written a pilot for a television show, a screenplay and “a large chunk of a book” after reading about 250 books while in prison.
Pledging he’ll never commit another crime, Morris wouldn’t rule out working on “one [more] campaign at a future date” as a political consultant — though he’d need his parole officer’s approval.
And he said he has lined up work with an undisclosed company he expects will pay him $200,000 to $300,000 a year.
“One of the things I intend to work on is parole reform,” he told parole commissioners. “I think there’s a crying need for it.”