Chung Seto (NY Post: Chad Rachman)
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When John Liu travels the globe to meet bigwig financiers looking for a piece of the city’s $120 billion pension fund, he’s often accompanied by one of his closest political advisers — his longtime campaign manager.
Chung Seto, Liu’s political adviser and an architect of his aggressive campaign fund-raising, has been at Liu’s side during at least three meetings with investment groups even though she isn’t a city official, according to sources and records from the events.
“She comes across like she’s Liu’s chief-of-staff,” said a top Democrat who has worked closely with Liu and has attended some of the same events.
The source said Seto presented herself as a top Liu aide, with control of the comptroller’s schedule and a role in his office’s financial decisions.
“I had no idea she was just a political consultant,” the source said.
It’s an important distinction, the source said, because people interested in doing business with the city are left with the impression that she is his gatekeeper when she’s actually the person who oversees Liu’s campaign operations.
It’s unclear what function Seto played for Liu at the events.
George Arzt, a spokesman for Seto and the Liu campaign, said she attended one of the events, called RFK Compass, at the personal invitation of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and went to another event hosted by Asian-American investors because she was invited by friends in the finance industry.
But another Democratic source who is involved in the city’s pension fund was mystified at Seto’s involvement.
“Maybe there is an innocent explanation why he brought his fund-raiser to meetings where rich people were pitching business to his government office, but it is hard to see it right now,” said the source.
The revelation comes as Liu’s political campaign, which Seto manages, is under federal probe.
Two weeks ago, a Liu campaign moneyman, Xing Wu “Oliver” Pan, was busted by the feds for allegedly agreeing to funnel $16,000 in illegal contributions to the campaign through straw donors.
Liu’s decision to bring his top campaign aide to meetings with potential pension investors also comes on the heels of convictions of former state Comptroller Alan Hevesi and his campaign manager, Hank Morris, in a pay-to-play scheme using state pension funds.
Seto, the executive director of the New York State Democratic Committee from 2001 to 2005, attended the events as a representative of the Chung Seto Group, her political consulting and lobbying firm.
She attended both the 2010 and 2011 RFK Compass Conference, organized by Kennedy Jr. to encourage socially responsible investments, sources said.
Seto also attended the 2010 Association of Asian American Investment Managers in San Francisco — another networking junket to put financial firms in touch with public-pension managers.
Last year, Chung accompanied Liu to the C40 environmental summit in Hong Kong — a meeting where the comptroller touted the power of the pension funds to encourage socially responsible investments.
Liu was a guest on Mayor Bloomberg’s private jet and Liu in turn invited Seto, a source said.
Seto has said she paid for expenses related to her travel, but it wasn’t immediately clear if she was reimbursed by the campaign.
There is no indication that Seto is under investigation in connection to her travels with Liu. The US Attorney’s Office declined to comment.