Hank Morris always looked all innocent, with his baby face and his sweaters and his "Oh, I'm just one of Santa's cheerful elves" curly white hair. But if anyone had looked closely, they've have noticed that the alleged pension scammer was hanging out with the wrong crowd. Namely, the Times reveals today, ex–Bear Stearns CEO Jimmy Cayne.

One former senior executive of Bear Stearns said Mr. Cayne, the former chief executive, had indicated that he wanted to go with Curran & Connors because of Mr. Morris’s political connections.

“The explanation was that he could be very helpful to us, that he was close to Hevesi and we needed to do this,” said the executive, who still works in the financial industry and did not want to be identified.

Yes, what is fascinating there is that it clearly wasn't even pot-loving, profanity-spewing Cayne who thought up this scam — he was clearly just going along with what Hank was already doing. Maybe it was even Morris's idea to smoke the pot! It's always the quiet ones.

Pension Inquiry Reveals a Power Broker’s Web [NYT]