Posted on 01/06/2011 10:07:42 PM PST by GreatJoeMcCarthy
Federal regulators are investigating whether California violated securities laws and failed to provide adequate disclosure about its giant public pension fund, according to a person with knowledge of the investigation.
The Securities and Exchange Commission normally polices companies, but last year it brought its first enforcement action ever against a state, accusing New Jersey of securities fraud for misleading bond investors about the condition of its pension fund. The commission signaled, in its settlement with New Jersey, that it was going to look more broadly at the pension disclosures of states and cities.
The fund, the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, known as Calpers, lost about a quarter of its total investment portfolio during the financial crisis, leaving the state responsible for replacing billions of dollars each year and contributing to its huge deficit. The question is whether California adequately disclosed in the preceding years how risky the pension investments were and how much money it might need to cover any shortfall.
But it is unclear whether investigators are focusing on those risks or on possible conflicts of interest in steering investments to related parties, the subject of a separate investigation by the attorney general of California.....
...If federal investigators are able to make a case that California misled investors about the risk in its pension fund, it would send a powerful signal to other public funds, which almost without exception base their financial reporting on average annual investment returns of about 8 percent a year, something hard to defend in today’s markets, no matter what the investment mix.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
A monster. Perhaps the largest corruptive influence in CA today.
This is the kind of service we get from California’s abysmal State and Local Governments : YouTube Search = Sewer Soon City Police Misconduct
I wish somebody would nuke this horrible disgusting corrupt State of government workers and their welfare / illegal alien underclass parasites!
SEC allowed their bankster buddies to sell the crap to States’ pension funds to begin with and now they investigate the pension funds????? WTF
Considering it's the Obozo Administration .... does this mean that CALPERS didn't hork up enough payola to meet their protection quota?
The "government money machine" to buy votes and campaign contributions was engineered in the 1970s .....
So now Obozo wants to give the dregs a fresh squeeze?
You noticed who his new chief of staff is? Bill "Let's Count the Ballots Again in this Locked Room" Daley. Algore's vote-stealer from the 2000 campaign.
Looks like Obozo is serious about stealing the 2012 election .... he's got Daley in the White House and the SEC enforcing the squeezin's from CALPERS, canvassing for dough. He knows he can't get another TARP though .... now where, oh where can I find a great big pot of Other People's Money?
When Slick was in a reelection jam, he sold his office to the Chinese. Obozo figures the Chinese won't pay this time, so he's decided to rape CALPERS instead. Seize it, squeeze it. It's all good.
Never let a serious crisis to go to waste, that is what they are thinking. Who cares about fault or consequences when it concerns the little people?
If the unions rank and file voted for this then the public should not be responsible for Calpers losses. union pensions should be adjusted to reflect reduced earnings.
Oh, THAT Bill Daley? From the Chicago Branch of The Daley Family Vote Mfg Division? The Daley family motto is "When We Fix Elections, They Stay Fixed."
=========================================
HERE'S ANOTHER DALEY TIDBIT: Bill Daley, brother of Chi/Mayor Richard Daley, former Commerce Secy under Clinton and long-time executive at Wall Street’s JP Morgan Chase joins the Obama Admin as White House COS.
REFERENCE Lehman's Bankruptcy Estate Sues J.P. Morgan
WSJ | 5/26/2010 | BY MIKE SPECTOR And SUSANNE CRAIG
FR Posted May 26, 2010 by markomalley
Lehman's Bankruptcy Estate Sues JP Morgan Chase & Co., alleging that JP Morgan illegally siphoned billions of dollars from Lehman in the days before the investment bank filed the largest bankruptcy in US history.
The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in US Bankruptcy Court, New York, alleges that JP Morgan Chief Executive James Dimon and other top executives used inside knowledge to take advantage of Lehman as its financial state worsened.
JP Morgan coerced Lehman to turn over $8.6 billion in collateral in Sept 2008, triggering a liquidity squeeze that contributed to Lehman's collapse, the suit said. The estate is hoping to recoup billions in collateral the bank demanded, and other damages. (Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
If we had honest investigators, Bill Clintoon and his pack of elite California thieves and Gray Davis would go to jail for the rest of their lives.
Their looting of Cal Pers makes Madoff look like a petty 7/11 thief.
SNIP.......it seemed the perfect fit: Bill Clinton, corporate reformer, signing on as a senior adviser (and "active adviser," according to a company press release) to the Yucaipa Corporate Initiatives Fund and the Yucaipa American Fund. Both get all their cash from pension funds from public-school teachers and government workers in California and New York state.
CALPERS, the huge California public-employee retirement fund, has agreed to commit $500 million to Yucaipa, and the California State Teachers Retirement System (CALSTRS) another $150 million. Millions more are to come from the New York State Common Retirement Fund.
Clinton's job, when he joined Yucaipa in April 2002, wasn't just to help make the rich richer: These were to be "investment funds that specialize in lower-income urban and rural communities," as The New York Times reported. Yucaipa managing partner Carlton Jenkins told Black Enterprise magazine that the funds were seeking out "urban-based minority or female-owned businesses."
And Clinton's role in the fund, Yucaipa head Ron Burkle made clear, would not be passive. "He's invaluable," said Burkle, explaining that Clinton would help raise money and offer investment advice to the funds. But a venture that was supposed to help minority businesses and secure the future of pensioners in two of America's biggest states seems to have done anything but.
The Yucaipa Corporate Initiatives Fund has already poured millions into Al Gore's new cable channel, Current Television. Gore's venture is headquartered in a tony neighborhood of San Francisco, which certainly doesn't seem to fit the definition of a "lower-income urban" community. Nor is it minority-owned — indeed, all the major investors are white males. (Indeed, by a who's who of major Democratic Party money people — including Joel Hyatt, former Democratic National Committee finance chairman, Rob Glaser of Realnetworks and Bill Joy of Sun Microsystems.)
Yucaipa told the San Francisco Weekly that Gore's enterprise "has a strong commitment to increase the representation of women and people of color." But the upper management of the network is completely white.
Indeed, one of the few significant minority-owned businesses that the funds have invested in is Sean John, the clothing enterprise run by that struggling representative of the "lower-income urban community," rap mogul Sean "Puffy" Combs. (A contributor to Hillary Clinton's campaigns with the potential of raising enormous sums for Democrats, Combs is likely to play a prominent role in supporting a Hillary run for the White House in '08.)
The funds' real emphasis, in short, seems to be Democratic cronyism. Another example: The Yucaipa Corporate Initiatives Fund recently backed up a bid by Diversified Investment Management Group to take over Piccadilly Restaurants. DIMG is described by Fashion Week Daily "as a front for Ron Burkle," close friend and financial supporter of Bill and Hillary Clinton. He's also the chairman of Yucaipa.
Some of the pension money committed to the Yucaipa funds arrived with curious timing. Carl McCall, then the comptroller of New York and thus the sole trustee of the New York State Common Retirement Fund, began the ball rolling with the Yucaipa Corporate Initiatives Fund just as Sen. Hillary Clinton surprised many Democrats everywhere by endorsing his bid for governor — at a time when his chief opponent in the primary was Andrew Cuomo, who had served President Bill Clinton loyally as secretary of Housing and Urban Development.
The hundreds of millions flowing from California retirement funds come courtesy of California Treasurer Phil Angelides, a longtime Clinton political ally. Now running for governor, his bio mentions his important role (as state California Democratic Party chairman) in electing Bill Clinton to the presidency. The banner photo across his Web site features him standing side-by-side with the ex-president.
Yet, while all the players in the Yucaipa funds are Democrats, they seem a bit confused about their social mission. When Clinton joined up, The Yucaipa American Fund proudly announced that its purpose was to invest in "industries and companies that maintain strong corporate governance practices and are sensitive to the interests of their employees."
Tell that to the employees of Aloha Airlines. The fund is backing a $100 million deal to take over the airline — but it has attached some very tight strings: It's making the deal contingent upon terminating the pilots' pension plan and contract. Yet the federal Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. says the pension plan is not the problem; the airline can readily afford it. Pilots responded with a strike. (Just to round things out, the two major shareholders in the airline, Hawaii's Ching and Ing families, give overwhelmingly to Democrats.)
Meanwhile, the workers whose pensions have been invested in Yucaipa are getting a terrible deal. According to CALSTARS, California teachers have already committed $61.9 million of the $150 million that they promised Yucaipa. As of last March 31, three years after the venture started, they'd seen a grand total of $837 come back to them. Overall, the rate of return since the funds launched have been a loss of 12.1 percent.
Govenor Moonbeam
“Medfly” Brown
I remember him from the 70’s. He opened Pandora’s box, and let the white collar unions take over the state. Now he’s back.....Buh bye, California ;-)
Here is an instant replay of the Madoff types and looters of Calpers from your reply:
CALPERS, the huge California public-employee retirement fund, has agreed to commit $500 million to Yucaipa, and the California State Teachers Retirement System (CALSTRS) another $150 million. Millions more are to come from the New York State Common Retirement Fund.
Clinton’s job, when he joined Yucaipa in April 2002, wasn’t just to help make the rich richer: These were to be “investment funds that specialize in lower-income urban and rural communities,” as The New York Times reported. Yucaipa managing partner Carlton Jenkins told Black Enterprise magazine that the funds were seeking out “urban-based minority or female-owned businesses.”
And Clinton’s role in the fund, Yucaipa head Ron Burkle made clear, would not be passive. “He’s invaluable,” said Burkle, explaining that Clinton would help raise money and offer investment advice to the funds. But a venture that was supposed to help minority businesses and secure the future of pensioners in two of America’s biggest states seems to have done anything but.
The Yucaipa Corporate Initiatives Fund has already poured millions into Al Gore’s new cable channel, Current Television. Gore’s venture is headquartered in a tony neighborhood of San Francisco, which certainly doesn’t seem to fit the definition of a “lower-income urban” community. Nor is it minority-owned — indeed, all the major investors are white males. (Indeed, by a who’s who of major Democratic Party money people — including Joel Hyatt, former Democratic National Committee finance chairman, Rob Glaser of Realnetworks and Bill Joy of Sun Microsystems.)
Yucaipa told the San Francisco Weekly that Gore’s enterprise “has a strong commitment to increase the representation of women and people of color.” But the upper management of the network is completely white.
Indeed, one of the few significant minority-owned businesses that the funds have invested in is Sean John, the clothing enterprise run by that struggling representative of the “lower-income urban community,” rap mogul Sean “Puffy” Combs. (A contributor to Hillary Clinton’s campaigns with the potential of raising enormous sums for Democrats, Combs is likely to play a prominent role in supporting a Hillary run for the White House in ‘08.)
The funds’ real emphasis, in short, seems to be Democratic cronyism. Another example: The Yucaipa Corporate Initiatives Fund recently backed up a bid by Diversified Investment Management Group to take over Piccadilly Restaurants. DIMG is described by Fashion Week Daily “as a front for Ron Burkle,” close friend and financial supporter of Bill and Hillary Clinton. He’s also the chairman of Yucaipa.
Some of the pension money committed to the Yucaipa funds arrived with curious timing. Carl McCall, then the comptroller of New York and thus the sole trustee of the New York State Common Retirement Fund, began the ball rolling with the Yucaipa Corporate Initiatives Fund just as Sen. Hillary Clinton surprised many Democrats everywhere by endorsing his bid for governor — at a time when his chief opponent in the primary was Andrew Cuomo, who had served President Bill Clinton loyally as secretary of Housing and Urban Development.
The hundreds of millions flowing from California retirement funds come courtesy of California Treasurer Phil Angelides, a longtime Clinton political ally. Now running for governor, his bio mentions his important role (as state California Democratic Party chairman) in electing Bill Clinton to the presidency. The banner photo across his Web site features him standing side-by-side with the ex-president.
Yet, while all the players in the Yucaipa funds are Democrats, they seem a bit confused about their social mission. When Clinton joined up, The Yucaipa American Fund proudly announced that its purpose was to invest in “industries and companies that maintain strong corporate governance practices and are sensitive to the interests of their employees.”
Tell that to the employees of Aloha Airlines. The fund is backing a $100 million deal to take over the airline — but it has attached some very tight strings: It’s making the deal contingent upon terminating the pilots’ pension plan and contract. Yet the federal Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. says the pension plan is not the problem; the airline can readily afford it. Pilots responded with a strike. (Just to round things out, the two major shareholders in the airline, Hawaii’s Ching and Ing families, give overwhelmingly to Democrats.)
Meanwhile, the workers whose pensions have been invested in Yucaipa are getting a terrible deal. According to CALSTARS, California teachers have already committed $61.9 million of the $150 million that they promised Yucaipa. As of last March 31, three years after the venture started, they’d seen a grand total of $837 come back to them. Overall, the rate of return since the funds launched have been a loss of 12.1 percent.
Five years ago in April, I discussed the Burkle/Clintoon/Davis connections with Yucaipa the so called CalPers financial managing firm with a friend and his wife, a newly retired teacher.
She looked like she was in shock, and her husband asked me to send him links to what I discussed.
I sent him the Yucaipa key word link from Free Republic.
That basically ended our friendship, his wife went into a stage of depression and blamed me for exposing CalPers. She blamed me for setting off her depression when I told them about Yucaipa, Burkle/Clintoon Davis et al and the links I sent to her husband.
Since, then size/scope of the Yucaipa/CalPers fiasco has grown. In spite of a fair amount of coverage by the mediots, the retired with CalPers don’t want to hear nor read about it.
Do a keyword search on Yucaipa for a sad trail of theft and fraud for over a decade.
this is more complex then many realize. Many people have 401/457 personal contributions/investments in calpers as well as home mortgages.
The irony of their thievery is that the crooks do their sap-happy upbeat act so well-——so that when we expose the truth, and out them as thieves, it’s hard for the outside “true believers” to accept it.
The true believers on the left never accept reality, when it comes to the criminal actions of their beloved leaders.
Bump.
Bump.
Bump.
Now, that is interesting ..........
Was Daley at JP Morgan while the Lehman bustout was going down?
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