Pension

Thursday, September 2, 2010

The Pension Fund Cover-Up: Billions in Government Funds Will Be Need to Keep the Funds Afloat

The Pension Fund Cover-Up
Billions in Government Funds Will Be Need to Keep the Funds Afloat

While the press ignores reports that the pension funds are underfunded and the politically the connected like Hank Morris and Steve Rattner used their illegal connection to Comptroller Hevesi and other pension fund keepers in several other states to dump junk investments full of subprime worthless mortgages into pension funds of New York and other states. Wall Street did not need the Rattner's to invest in AT&T and Apple, they used them to get the pension funds to buy the derivatives cocktails.

Now all involved except the challenger to the appointed state comptroller are trying to cover up the real weakness of the pension funds. The state pension fund is routinely papering over a shortfall that is worth tens of billions of dollars, GOP/Conservative state comptroller candidate Harry Wilson charges.






Pay to Play Pensions Former Intrepid Museum Chief Agrees To Pay $1 Million In Pay-To-Play Settlement » Six people have entered guilty pleas as a result of Cuomo's probe, including Hevesi's former chief investment officer, David Loglisci. More than a dozen companies have also settled with Cuomo, paying fines and agreeing to adopt a new code of conduct the AG was pushing. . . The investigation focuses on often politically connected people who Cuomo says acted as unlicensed “placement agents” seeking to get the comptroller, as sole trustee of the pension fund, to invest in their companies. (DN) * Hevesi fundraiser agrees to pay $1M in pension probe (NYP)

Monday, May 10, 2010

NY's Tax Payers Already Paying for Money Manager Pension Scandal

PM Edition Brown to Step Aside in Bid to Keep Labour in Power * NYC voters may have chance to change city charter *Divide in the Charter Commission? (Gotham Gazette) * Amending Extenders, Is It Legal? * Bloomberg's The Undisclosed Location Remains…Undisclosed * Where Was the Mayor? On the Phone (NYT) * State Budget 40 Days Late And $9B Short (Henry Stern, NY Civic) * City Selects 50 Senior Centers to Close (NYT)
* Senate Passes Furlough Extender, 32-29 * NY Legislature votes to furlough state workers (NYP)

NY's Tax Payers Already Paying for Money Manager Pension Scandal

Today's NYP is the only papers that writes about the $600 million the city is stashing away to pay for rising pension fund costs. Yet the Post did not mention the ongoing money manager pension fund scandal, which most likely is responsible for the rising pension fund cost to the city. In California it has become clear that the political connected money managers has cost the tax payers of that state billions. California public pension funds may face $500 billion shortfall‎.

We also know that Goldman and other banks put together bad mortgages, bet against them and sold them to pension funds. There is clearly a cover-up of the real reasons the city is not forced to kick in billions at a time teachers and fire houses are being cut. The cover-up even extends to this years state comptroller race. The media is not asking the state controller candidates about the causes of the rising pension costs to the tax payers.

City stashes $600M as pension boom looms Bloomberg has already allocated $7.4 billion to fund the city's five pension systems next year, up a worrisome 13 percent from the $6.6 billion being spent this year. When Bloomberg took office in 2002, taxpayers contributed just $1.3 billion toward the pensions of city workers. Although city taxpayers have to pick up the bill, it's the state Legislature that dictates the level of pension benefits.

This is what True News has published about the money manager pension fund scandal so far: Breaking News New York's Pay to Play Pension Scandal


Related Scandal
Freddie Mac (FRE) Requests $10.6B in Additional Bailout Funds * NY Adds $500M To Fannie Mae Mortgages Emii.com

This is what True News has published about the Fannie Mae scandal at Stuy Town
Wall Street Hijacks Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for Stuy Town




True News Had It First
The Wolf at Thompson's Door

Saturday's Post
Former director under Thompson, Josh Wolf-Powers, secured $70 million in investments for his private equity company Blue Wolf Capital after he left the Comptroller's Office. Wolf-Powers did not use a placement agent.nSunday's Post Rips Off True News Entire ExclusiveBILL, AIDES ARE PEN$ION PALSEX-THOMPSON BIGS' FIRMS NAB FUND DEALS

Exclusive: Only in True News
The Wolf at Thompson's Door

“Wolf-Powers told Mr. Rattner that he could not think of any investment firm that had persuaded the city’s pension fund to invest without using a placement agent.”

"Wolf-Powers knew so much about how the City invests its pension money with private firms, because Wolf-Powers and his close associates reinvented the New York City Employees Retirement System (NYCERS) when they were working under Thompson."

"The same year that Wolf-Powers turned Rattner onto Morris, Wolf-Powers left his key position with the City Comptroller to co-found the company Blue Wolf Capital Management with another top Thompson aide, Adam Blumenthal, who served as First Deputy Comptroller and Chief Financial Officer from 2002-2005. "

"Mr. Wolf-Powers oversaw the process by which the New York City Retirement Systems invested in private equity, economically targeted investments and other securities for which there is not a public market. During his tenure, the New York City Retirement Systems more than doubled their allocation to the private equity asset class, and their commitments to private equity funds, committing over $2 billion to nineteen private equity funds.”

“On July 9, 2007, six days after the ban was passed, [Thompson] accepted a $4,950 donation from the investment firm Blue Wolf Capital Management L.L.C. and a $4,050 contribution from its co-founder and managing partner, Adam Blumenthal.”

Pay to Play: PensionUncovering Multi State NetworkCUOMO-PROBE TARGET AN 'ADVISER' ON COP $$ Aldus Equity Partners *** N.M. Investment Adviser Caught Up in N.Y. Scandal: Case focuses on ... *** New Mexico Suspends [Mexico City's Bill Richardson's] Broker as Kickback Probe Widens (Updated) *** Pension Fund Scandal Expands: Rattner's Ties To Bill Richardson *** Times Piece On Rattner Scandal Makes No Mention Of Ties To Richardson *** Embattled Obama exec Rattner gave $20K to Richardson campaigns ... *** Records link city pension middlemen to pay-to-play probe of $122 billion state pension fund A host of politically connected firms acted as middlemen for many financial companies that won city pension fund business in recent years, city records show *** Ex-Assemblyman says his piece in pension scandal *** Disclosure Issue Emerges for Quadrangle *** 'KICKBACK' FIRM $CORED BIG NYC PENSION BIZ *** QUAD-BUNGLE FUND STATE, CITY PENSIONS AX INVESTMENT FIRM *** Wetherly Capital Group tangled in probe of pension fund kickback ... Wetherly has represented clients at two Los Angeles pension funds. A Los Angeles investment firm run by a well-known Southern California political operative Dan Weinstein, longtime Democratic fundraiser . . . $313,750 payment it made to a firm run by a New York political advisor who was arrested last month on charges of running a kickback scheme involving New York state's pension fund, Henry Morris *** SEC Queries Los Angeles Fire, Police Pension Fund on Conflicts of ... *** Silobreaker: SEC Pension Probe Extended to L.A. Fund *** Subject: Pension Fund Kickbacks Used To Fund Richardson's 'Latino U.S. Voter Registrations' *** Pay to Play? Firm Receives Government Contract After Donating to Bill Richardson *** Indicted NY Consultant Earned Fees From LA Police and Fire Pension Plan *** SEC Letters Outline “Informal Inquiry” into California Pension Deals *** Indicted political consultant Hank Morris reportedly made a placement fee on an $85 million deal between Quadrangle and the city's pension fund, but Comptroller Bill Thompson says he has no record of it *** Pension Fund Probe Now With Former Senator, Israeli Company