ALBANY, N.Y. -- The state comptroller has agreed to pay more than $200,000 to settle an investigation into his use of a state employee to drive for his ailing wife, the attorney general's office said Tuesday. Alan Hevesi paid the state $82,688.82 after doing his own calculation and was subsequently ordered by the attorney general's office to hand over another $90,000. Under an agreement with the same office, Hevesi will pay another $33,604.97 within 10 days. In October, the state Ethics Commission said Hevesi, a Democrat, broke the law when he used a staffer to chauffeur his wife from 2003 to mid-2006. Hevesi claimed the driver was needed to provide security for his wife, but the bipartisan commission said state police found no threat that justified the arrangement.
Hevesi apologized for what he called the serious error of providing a "belated" reimbursement, but insists he did not break the law. Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, the governor-elect, recused himself from the case but ordered a top deputy to investigate how much Hevesi still owed the state.