Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced that private equity firm Riverstone Holdings agreed to adopt his office's Public Pension Fund Code of Conduct plus pay $30 million to the NY State Pension Fund for its role in pay-to-play dealings. Cuomo has been investigating how numerous firms paid intermediaries to gain access to the NY State Pension Fund; Cuomo said, "If you knew and paid the right people, you could do business in New York. Hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer money went to people who were politically connected. That’s not going to be allowed any more." Some of those right people allegedly include aides to the former state comptroller. This settlement is the second; equity firm Carlyle also agreed to pay $20 million to the NY State Pension Fund, whose declined 26%.