The three middlemen firms are fixtures at porn conventions, where they hustle for business surrounded by seminude actors and sex-toy vendors.
Mr. Morris pleaded guilty to operating as an illegal middleman between firms and the state fund, a relationship which his sentencing judge, Justice Lewis Bart Stone of State Supreme Court in Manhattan, said had "impaired the public confidence in a major government function".
That would leave two companies to dominate much of the world market for large, brokered commercial risks—a prospect that frightens not only insurers but also companies that buy insurance.Insurance brokers act as middlemen between firms that want to insure their property and casualty risks and the insurers that underwrite policies.
Also on Thursday, Mr. Hevesi admitted for the first time that he had known that his longtime political consultant, Hank Morris, set himself up as a middleman between investment firms and the pension fund, an arrangement that state officials have alleged netted Mr. Morris millions of dollars and allowed him to grant a variety of favors to Mr. Hevesi's allies.
The traders further asked middlemen at brokerage firms "to use their influence" on other banks that set Libor, according to the documents.
So, for years, financial companies turned to middlemen like Cantor, firms known as interdealer brokers, to trade bonds without tipping their hands.
They included Karl Motey, a crucial figure in the government's extensive investigation into expert network firms — middlemen connecting traders to public company employees — that led to dozens of convictions.
Traditional advertising agencies — the middlemen between the firms and the platforms like television networks, radio stations and online publishers — are under pressure to deliver more value for their customers, or be cut out of the equation.
EnerNOC, an American energy middleman, for instance, pays other firms for allowing it to shut down their non-essential gear at times of peak demand, thus freeing up capacity.
The bureau acknowledged that the firm was just a middleman but faulted it for failing to properly vet sites to which it sent potential customers.
