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An appointee of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa voted two years ago to direct millions in public pension dollars to a company that invested in his own private equity fund, according to documents obtained by The Times. Elliott Broidy, chairman of Markstone Capital Partners, served until May on the Fire and Police Pensions board, which provides benefits to the city's retired police officers and firefighters. Real estate company CIM Group invested $500,000 in Markstone's private equity fund in 2004, according to an e-mail to the city's pension agency. Three years later, Broidy voted with his colleagues on the pension board...

Reporting from Los Angeles and Sacramento -- An ongoing investigation into pension fund corruption across the country intensified Friday as California Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown directed subpoenas at politically connected firms and individuals, according to sources familiar with the investigation. Brown issued the subpoenas as part of a probe into "placement agents" who help secure pension fund investment contracts for their clients in return for large sums of money, often millions of dollars. The subpoenas seek information on the use and disclosure of placement agents and potential conflicts of interest, said sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity because...

Two of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's appointees to a city pension board resigned today, one month after receiving a letter from the Securities and Exchange Commission asking them to identify income they had received from companies doing business with their agency. Sean Harrigan and Elliott Broidy, two members of the Los Angeles Fire and Police Pensions board, were asked to provide information to the SEC, which is investigating allegations of kickbacks at a New York state pension fund. Appearing at today's board meeting, Harrigan said the inquiry had created "a frenzy of media activity" that had placed him in...

The Securities and Exchange Commission is seeking detailed financial information from two members of the Los Angeles Fire and Police Pensions board, according to letters obtained by the Los Angeles Times in a joint investigation [1] with ProPublica. The letters to board members Sean Harrigan and Elliott Broidy ask for bank and brokerage account details, any finder's fees or placement agent fees, and documents "sufficient to identify all source of income greater than $10,000" received since the beginning of 2005. They represent the strongest evidence to date that the SEC's ongoing "pay-to-play" investigation of New York's state pension fund has...

SACRAMENTO -- Sean Harrigan, ousted as president of the $182.8 billion California Public Employees Retirement System, said in an interview Wednesday that he's still convinced Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Walt Disney Co. and Safeway Inc., played significant roles in his departure. "I was totally convinced in early December and late November, and I'm totally convinced today, the Chamber of Commerce and Steve Burd and Michael Eisner and the Schwarzenegger administration played a key role in making sure I wasn't re-elected by the state personnel board to the CalPERS board," Harrigan said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press Wednesday...