Probe Clouds Star Turn For Auto Negotiator Rattner

Another big, politically connected firm caught up in the investigation, the Carlyle Group, resolved its role by agreeing to a $20 million settlement with Cuomo's office. A Quadrangle spokesman declined to comment on whether it has been involved with similar settlement talks.

Rattner's backers have said they find it hard to believe he would have knowingly participated in an illegal influence-peddling scheme.

Some Quadrangle investors had a chance to pull out of the firm after the scandal broke, but they have not done so. The company now has about $6 billion under management. Its investments include Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, the telecommunications company nTelos, Cablevision, the German TV network ProSiebenSat.1, the media group that publishes Maxim magazine and the Norwegian cable company Get AS.

"I can tell you, going back a long way with this guy, he is scrupulously honest and a great public servant," said New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who hired Quadrangle to manage his multibillion-dollar fortune last year and has said he is sticking with the company.

___

Associated Press Writers Jim Kuhnhenn and Stephen Manning contributed to this report from Washington.