Category Archives: Investment management

Some Public Pension Funds Give KKR a Wet Noodle Lashing Over Toys ‘R’ Us Collapse

Not surprisingly, action in the wake of private equity investors Bain, KKR and Vornado stiffing Toys ‘R’ Us workers of their severance have generated more press than restitution. But some of the ideas bruited about would have real teeth.

Will Investors Like CalPERS Fall for Private Equity’s Long-Lived Fund Con?

Beware of the private equity “innovation,” the long-lived or “permanent capital” fund. It is virtually guaranteed to short change investors on returns needed to compensate for the longer holding period.

Finally: SEC Frets about Share Buybacks, “Torrent of Corporate Trading Dominating the Market” and “Short-Term Financial Engineering”

Mirabile dictu, a Republican SEC commissioner criticizes stock buybacks….

CalPERS CIO Ted Eliopoulos Tells 5 Big Lies in Presenting Super Indirect Private Equity Scheme

CalPERS’ Chief Investment Officer Ted Eliopoulos seemed unable to offer a truthful, coherent rationale for two new private equity schemes he unveiled last Friday. CalPERS beneficiaries and California taxpayers should be worried.

CalPERS Issues False and Misleading Press Release to Try to Railroad Board on Private Equity Industry Enrichment Scheme

A brazen example of CalPERS staff trying to muscle board members and have them violate their fiduciary duty regarding a massive, misguided, and sketchy private equity outsourcing scheme.

CalPERS Chief Investment Officer Ted Eliopoulos to Leave at Year End; Investment Office Adrift Due to Senior Level Vacancies

Why the departure of Ted Eliopoulos from CalPERS could wind up being the end of an era.

SEC Gives Private Equity Firm Welsh Carson a Wet Noodle Lashing Over Purchasing Kickback Abuse

More SEC enforcement theater on the private equity front.

New Report: Most State Pension Funds, Including CalPERS, Lag 60/40 Investment Mix at Higher Cost, Resulting in Even Higher Shortfalls

Yet another stunning indictment of public pension fund management. If the biggest funds with the best staffs can’t beat a simple Vanguard portfolio, why aren’t more heads rolling?

Why Board Member and Vocal Critic of CalPERS Margaret Brown Needs to Stay The Course

A successful public pension fund reformer explains how determined foes of transparency and accountability play dirty.

CalPERS’ Priya Mathur Opens, Reads, Even Answers Mail of Board Member Margaret Brown, Denies Her Access to Transcripts of Past Meetings.

Yet more lawless behavior at CalPERS.

Why Charles Asubonten Is Not Qualified to Be Chief Financial Officer and What His Hiring Says About CalPERS

Further discussion of the mystery of how CalPERS CFO Charles Asubonten got hired.

Executive Summary: New CalPERS CFO Charles Asubonten’s Misrepresentations and Discrepancies in His Resume and Form 700

Why the hiring of Charles Asubonten as CFO of CalPERS is a serious governance lapse.

Misrepresentations and Inconsistencies in CalPERS CFO Charles Asubonten’s Resume

A detailed documentation of the misrepresentations and inconsistencies in the resume presented by Charles Asubonten to CalPERS when he applied for the CFO post.

Bay Hills Sues Kentucky Retirement Systems for Invoking Its Contractual Right to Dissolve Fund

Kentucky Retirement Systems is in the midst of another important alternative investments legal contest.

Current Kentucky Retirement Systems Trustees Considering Throwing Predecessors Under the Bus to Get Blackstone and KKR

Is a pension fund management revolution brewing in what would seem to be the most unlikely place, that hotbed of corruption, the Kentucky Retirement Systems?