Guggenheim Advisors, a Bank of Ireland subsidiary, earned over $4.6 million (€3.24 million) for consultancy work for New York's state pension funds in the last two years, latest figures have shown.

The New York attorney general, Andrew Cuomo, is investigating the relationship between Guggenheim and former New York comptroller Alan Hevesi, who controlled over $150 billion in state pension funds.

He resigned last December after pleading guilty to a felony count of allowing state workers to act as chauffeurs for his wife.

Mr Cuomo's office is investigating campaign contributions to Mr Hevesi of $25,000 each by two Guggenheim executives. Both donated the money last October, according to official records.

The latest figures released by the New York State and Local Retirement System show Guggenheim earned $3,224,267 for the year up to March 2007 for managing an "absolute return strategy" fund for the pension fund. Absolute return strategy funds are funds that try to return a profit regardless of how the overall market is doing. The previous year, Guggenheim earned $1,453,110 for its work for the New York pension fund.

Guggenheim, which has managed over $447 million in New York state pension funds since 2005, is a "fund of funds" and is paid to distribute the pension sums to other hedge funds for investment.

Bank of Ireland has said it is co-operating with the investigation and had launched its own internal investigation.

A source close to Mr Hevesi has indicated that, on legal advice, he will not be co-operating with Mr Cuomo's investigation.

"Other people may be co-operating witnesses but it's different when you're the target," the source said.

Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson sits on a Guggenheim advisory board as a national security adviser. Mr Thompson's spokesman, Todd Harris, said Mr Thompson has not been active on that board since June.

Mr Thompson was paid between $100,000 and $1 million a year as Guggenheim's national security adviser, according to his Senate financial disclosure documents.

Asked why an investment company needed a national security adviser, Mr Harris said that was a matter for Guggenheim Advisors but said financial companies need to know what is coming down the pipeline in international affairs.

Mr Thompson spoke on national security and economic policy at a Guggenheim Advisors event in the St Regis Hotel in Manhattan last May, along with Lawrence Lindsey, senior economic adviser to President George Bush, who also sits on the Guggenheim advisory board.

Mr Hevesi's lawyer, Brad Simon, said Mr Hevesi met Bill White, president of the Sea, Air and Space Museum, on board the Intrepid aircraft carrier on the Hudson river. Mr White is being investigated for his links between Mr Hevesi's election campaign and finance companies like Guggenheim Advisors.

"[Mr Hevesi] knew the guy. Bill White fundraised for him but that's all," Mr Simon added.

He said the pension funds were controlled by a board who acted as "external gatekeepers" and Mr Hevesi merely set policy. "There were professional people on the board, they were not political."