Given this record of criminalizing business interests for political gain, it’s not surprising that New York’s next governor was stacking the deck to obtain convictions in a number of his prosecutions. This David Hechler/Law.com article reports the ugly news:

Like the U.S. Department of Justice, New York state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer has also pressured companies to stop paying the legal fees of employees who face criminal charges. Spitzer appears to be the only state AG who has raised fee payment as an issue. [. . .]
Most of Spitzer’s targets are financial institutions swept up in his probe of mutual funds. According to a Corporate Counsel review of 17 agreements that Spitzer’s office struck with companies accused of market timing, nine settlements included “no indemnification” clauses. These provisions prohibit a business from paying the legal fees of indicted employees unless its bylaws require it. In one instance, Bank of America Corp. agreed to a no-indemnification clause even though its bylaws require it to pay fees. Moreover, the bank had already begun advancing expenses in at least one case.
Spitzer’s office declined to comment on the no-indemnification clauses. (Spitzer is running for governor of New York.)

And remember that case involving the Bank of America executive? That would be the Theodore Sihpol case (see also here):

One corporate defense attorney who challenged Spitzer on fee payments is C. Evan Stewart of New York’s Zuckerman Spaeder. Stewart represents former Bank of America financial adviser Theodore Sihpol III, who was indicted by Spitzer’s office in 2004. Though Bank of America’s bylaws required it to pay its employees’ legal fees, Stewart says he had to sue the company to force the issue.
According to Sihpol’s complaint, filed in Delaware Chancery Court in 2003, his attorney was told by a Bank of America lawyer that it had decided to “cooperate fully” with Spitzer’s office, and any “request for advancement of [legal] expenses by Mr. Sihpol would be vetted with the attorney general.” After the bank’s lawyers submitted a written request to Spitzer’s office, they later told Sihpol that expenses would not be advanced. But shortly before the suit was scheduled to go to trial, Bank of America agreed to pay.
In Stewart’s view, the denial of fees is “fundamentally a denial of due process.” He explains, “You’re taking away the ability of people to defend themselves.” A lawyer for Bank of America did not respond to a request for comment. In July 2005 a Manhattan jury acquitted Sihpol on 29 of 33 charges, deadlocking on the others. Three months later, the AG dropped those charges too.

By the way, if you want to see what happens when the government muscles a company to breach its usual policy of paying the defense costs of one of its junior executives charged with a crime, then see the sad case of Jamie Olis.
On one hand, New York voters are going to elect Spitzer as their new governor next week. On the other hand, New York officials are already searching for answers why businesses are fleeing New York for more favorable locations elsewhere. Spitzer’s shameful pandering to the public’s resentment of wealthy business executives may be good for him politically, but it’s poor politics generally. If he continues the same policies as governor, then Eliot Spitzer will cost New York jobs and wealth, which are two things that he has never had to worry about.