NEW YORK (Reuters) ? New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer yesterday said his office last year recovered a record $2.38 billion for consumers, investors and his state from investigations and settlements related to mutual funds, tobacco and other matters.

Spitzer, a 2006 Democratic gubernatorial candidate in New York, said recoveries increased 37 percent from $1.74 billion in 2003. The totals include amounts ordered to be paid, and amounts that may be paid in future years or ultimately not be collectible.

The attorney general has in recent years become a key figure in changing long-standing practices in such areas as mutual fund trading, insurance and Wall Street stock research.

Last year?s recoveries included $1.32 billion in restitution to the public, up 146 percent from a year earlier. More than $1 billion of this resulted from probes into Wall Street and other financial firms, and conducted with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Spitzer said.

State and local governments last year obtained $802 million in tobacco-related recoveries, including $410 million to be paid to the state and $392 million to be paid to local governments. The state also recovered $265 million from other judgments, settlements, fees and penalties.

Spitzer last year engineered settlements with several companies he accused of helping favoured clients trade mutual funds improperly at ordinary investors? expense.

In the largest settlement, Bank of America Corp. agreed to pay $675 million, including $320 million in restitution, to settle charges involving its Nations funds and FleetBoston Financial Corp.?s Columbia funds. Bank of America bought Fleet last April.

The tobacco recoveries stemmed from the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement to resolve state lawsuits over the cost of treating smoking-related illnesses. Companies that signed are expected to pay about $200 billion over 25 years.