Posted: 3:10 am
July 5, 2008
New York's claims against former New York Stock Exchange head Richard Grasso are now moot, thanks to a pair of court rulings that Attorney General Andrew Cuomo properly has decided not to appeal.
Gone with them are the last remaining tatters of Eliot Spitzer's reputation.
Cuomo threw in the towel Tuesday after an appellate division panel dismissed the last remaining counts of Spitzer's 2004 lawsuit. Earlier, the New York Court of Appeals had dismissed the four most serious charges.
Spitzer expressed outrage over the $200 million monster pay package that NYSE gave Grasso before he was booted in 2003 - especially given that the exchange itself made only $28 million profit in his final year on the job. And he may even have had grounds to file suit.
But once NYSE converted to a public company in 2005, the courts ruled, the AG's standing to prosecute ended - given that any money recouped would "serve only the interests of private parties, not any public interest."
Even more disturbing about Spitzer's case was that it ignored the role of former state Comptroller Carl McCall - who admitted that, as head of NYSE's compensation committee, he'd signed off on Grasso's pay deal without reading it.
But going after a powerful Democrat like McCall would not have helped Spitzer's gubernatorial ambitions.
Indeed, the Grasso case fit in neatly with Spitzer's image as an anti-corruption, um, steamroller.
As AG, Spitzer specialized in lurid litigation against deep-pocketed defendants - prompting huge headlines for himself and, usually, a pretrial settlement as targets sought to avoid bad press.
The few who decided to go to court often fared well - as Grasso has just done.
Unfortunately, Spitzer's tactics usually worked - propelling him into the governor's office and fueling the hubris that ultimately led to his downfall.
Congratulations to Grasso.
