In order to end the two-year-old inquiry by New York Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo into its pension business, the Carlyle Group has agreed to pay $20 million and make broad changes to its practices. Carlyle, one of the world's largest private equity firms, will no longer use intermediaries, known as placement agents, to secure investment business from public pension funds, and it will curb its campaign contributions to elected officials who oversee pension funds.
"This is a revolutionary agreement," Cuomo said Thursday. "I believe it totally changes the way people operate: It ends pay-to-play, it bans the selling of access, it puts the political power brokers out of business."
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