CalPERS PENSION SHADINES, ROLLS ON: TODAY'S (6/16/11) L.A. Times FOLLOWS-UP on Zuma Dogg's coverage of this topic (The Steptoe Report). Maybe cause I sent report prepared by insider for ZD, to the LA Times. Here's the result?

FIRST: Excerpt from ZD's "Steptoe Report" blog post (April 25, 2011) http://goo.gl/S4t7Z:

"One first needs to understand the process an investment goes through before a pension fund invests to realize that there were armies of consultants and lawyers paid by our taxpayer dollars to review investments on behalf of the board. Steptoe and Johnson,LLP and their vaudevillian partners at Navigant Consulting, Inc, the authors of the review, seem only to have scratched the obvious surface in rooting out and defining all the parties involved. It's as if they brought in a hack summer intern reporter from the Sacramento Bee and asked "you mind writing this report for us?". I'm not here to defend the likes of Weinstein and Villalobos, but the whole story must be told for the CalPERS board to finally clean house.

I absolutely do not buy into the premise that the consultants at places like CalPERS and LAFP were not complicit in the shenanigans that took place. One first needs to understand the process an investment goes through before a pension fund invests to realize that there were armies of consultants and lawyers paid by our taxpayer dollars to review investments on behalf of the board. The Steptoe Report would have us all believe that placement agents had the ultimate authority to write checks and make investments on behalf of CalPERS. It's as if former disgraced CalPERS CEO Fred Buenrostro had the checkbook and Weinstein and Villalobos were handing him the pen. That premise could not be further from the truth." - Report for L.A. City News "Steptoe Report" insider.

LA TIMES - CalPERS' $11-million legal bill raises eyebrows (6/28/11) http://goo.gl/L667X: The California Public Employees' Retirement System paid $11 million to a Washington, D.C., law firm and its advisors to conduct an internal review, an amount that has some of the fund's own directors proposing more stringent oversight of outside legal fees.

The review found support for allegations of corruption, bribery and influence peddling at the country's biggest public pension fund, but some lawyers and financial experts familiar with the scandal said they were surprised by the large legal fees.

"I've never heard of a pension fund paying that kind of money" on an internal investigation, said Ed Siedle, an expert who investigates pension fund investment portfolios. [STATE MONEY! OUT OF THE GENERAL FUND, AT THE END OF THE DAY!]

"They could have learned a whole lot more for a lot less money," Siedle said. "The fact they spent that much money to learn so little indicates to me that they did not want a real in-depth review."

Securities lawyer Keith Bishop, a former California Department of Corporations commissioner, was skeptical about the independence of the Steptoe firm after learning from CalPERS that Steptoe had worked previously for the pension fund on a number of proceedings and matters.

"Normally, when you hire an outside law firm to do an investigation of this type, you want someone who doesn't have a relationship with the company and the management of the company or, in this case, a government agency," he said.

The Steptoe report focused on alleged insider dealings at CalPERS that involved multimillion-dollar fee payments to politically connected intermediaries, who helped private equity managers get billions of dollars in pensioners' money.

Fund managers paid one of those go-betweens, former CalPERS board member Alfred J.R. Villalobos, more than $50 million.

The special review alleged that then-Chief Executive Federico Buenrostro Jr. pressured subordinates to invest with Villalobos' clients.

Perhaps the most surprising part of the report detailed an incident when Buenrostro and two former board members allegedly secured a $4-million consulting fee for Villalobos from a prescription drug benefits management company that was seeking a large CalPERS contract.

Buenrostro went to work for Villalobos after retiring from CalPERS in 2008.

The state has sued Villalobos and Buenrostro, alleging fraud. Both have denied any wrongdoing.

[I work hard and push hard to DO SOMETHING about the corruption...I sent the blog post above to L.A. Times, and they do a report focusing on what ZD's insider focused on...and the two names are the two names (Villabobos/Bueunstro) that ZD has been blasting about. Villaraigosa and L.A. City Hall is no stranger to these two. You'll see what's up...]

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