ALBANY (AP) -- Federal prosecutors say an investment manager has been convicted of attempted extortion for threatening to reveal an extramarital affair involving an official at the New York comptroller's office in an attempt to win access to state pension fund business.
Authorities say 41-year-old Giridhar Sekhar of Brookline, Mass., sent anonymous emails in 2009 threatening to reveal an affair unless the official reversed an earlier position and recommended a $35 million investment of pension assets in funds managed by his company.
Sekhar was a managing partner of FA Technology Ventures Corp.
The comptroller's office has said there was no affair.
Sekhar was convicted of attempted extortion and five counts of transmitting an extortion threat. He was acquitted of one charge. Sekhar argued that his actions were not a federal crime.
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