Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli’s campaign has reaped more than $340,000 from law firms seeking legal work from his agency, The Post has learned.
The massive sum from firms that represent — or are in line to represent — the Comptroller’s Office in lucrative class-action lawsuits accounts for 8 percent of DiNapoli’s entire fund-raising haul since 2008.
Such firms have collected hundreds of millions in legal fees in recent years, drawing cries of “pay to play” from critics of how DiNapoli and his predecessors have managed the state’s $125 billion pension fund.
DISPATCHES FROM THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL
Donations to the state’s top fiscal officer have come under increased scrutiny since Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s industry-rocking investigation into abuse of the pension fund under former Comptroller Alan Hevesi.
“It’s basically a process where the comptroller gives out business from the pension fund and there are campaign contributions involved,” charged Harry Wilson, DiNapoli’s GOP rival.
“It’s just another form of the same pay-to-play culture that thrived under Alan Hevesi.”
DiNapoli spokesman Dennis Tompkins said the division that selects attorneys has no idea who donates to the campaign.
“Any suggestion that there’s any untoward influence-based campaign contributions is completely ridiculous and unfounded,” Tompkins said.
Meanwhile, GOP attorney-general candidate Dan Donovan slammed his Democratic rival, Eric Schneiderman, for collecting $200,000 in campaign cash this week from Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver’s personal-injury law firm.
Silver, who has long been seen as a champion of the state’s tort lawyers, collects an undisclosed sum for acting “of counsel” to the powerhouse Manhattan firm Weitz & Luxenberg.
“How can Eric Schneiderman be expected to investigate conflicts of interest and business conspiracies like Silver’s when he drinks from the same well as the Assembly speaker?” Donovan spokeswoman Virginia Lam asked.
Schneiderman spokesman James Freedland said the campaign “enjoys” when Donovan brings up where the candidates get their money.
“It gives us a chance to remind voters that 25 percent of Donovan’s cash comes from a single hedge fund leading the charge to go soft on Wall Street,” he said.