Probe Clouds Star Turn For Auto Negotiator Rattner

Authorities say Rattner is unlikely to face charges, but the probe has raised unanswered questions. Among them: Did the banker cross an ethical or legal line in the winter of 2004-2005 as he tried to persuade state officials to make a major investment with his private equity firm?

The influence peddling scandal is an unexpected twist in the story of one of New York's most influential people.

After graduating from Brown in 1974, Rattner began a career in journalism close to the top, as an assistant to New York Times columnist James Reston. He excelled at the paper, covering business and working in the Washington D.C. bureau, where he struck up an enduring friendship with Arthur O. Sulzberger Jr., now the Times' publisher.

Rattner surprised colleagues by quitting journalism for Wall Street at age 30, but the decision paid richly. He rose to the No. 2 position at the New York office of the esteemed banking firm Lazard Freres.

By the time Rattner left Lazard to launch his own firm, the Quadrangle Group, in 2000, he was a star in several orbits.

Vanity Fair wrote a profile calling him "the most talked-about investment banker of his generation." Rattner's list of clients, friends and business partners included independent film titans Harvey and Bob Weinstein, Comcast Corp. President Brian Roberts and buyout billionaire Henry Kravis.