Breaking News: Court Deals Blow to Owners of Huge Apartment Complex Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village *** Thompson Has Not Closed Gap; Trails Bloomy by 16 pts.
AG Cuomo is unraveling a Pay-to-play scams that have roiled the nation’s retirement funds involving a vast and deeply-enmeshed web of super-connected players. AG Andrew Cuomo says his investigation has "uncovered a Nationwide matrix of corruption – which grows more expansive and interconnected by the day.” What we don’t know at this point from the indictment and guilty pleas is how much these pay to play pension fund money managers who use campaign contributions and political connections to cut themselves into a piece of NY's working families pensions, will cost the taxpayers. The pension cost to the
What We Know from California
Two Main Players in
We learned last week was that the
Freddy Ferrer, the Democratic nominee for mayor of
Leon Black's Apollo Paid Vilalobos Alvco
Leon Black private equity firm Apollo Management paid Villalobos Arvco Capital Apollo at least $40.9 million in placement-agent fees, Millions in 2007 after the
Villalobos Arvco Loses Money for California Pension Fund
Wall Street Journal reported that Arvco recommended some of Calpers's poorly performing investments; last year the pension fund lost nearly a quarter of its value and more than $50 billion.
Black’s Apollo has Also Poorly Performed Money managers LEON BLACK MAY NEED TO GIVE $365M TO COVER PENSIONS IN APOLLO, the returning of money is know as clawback. Apollo Management has asked for and received a two-year extension, to July 2010, in hopes of righting the money-losing fund. In 2008 to Apollo Credit Opportunities Fund I, which invests in debt markets and was down 49% as of March, according to Calpers documents? Investments in two other Apollo funds -- $1 billion in its flagship private-equity fund, and $200 million in an Amsterdam-listed vehicle that invests in Apollo's funds and deals -- were both down around 60% at the height of the stock market crash.
Villalobos Arvco clients including Apollo have obtained seven commitments from Calipers (California Pension Board) totaling more than $3.3 billion since 2006, not bad for a pension fund that accepted fewer than 10 percent of the proposals made by private equity firms represented by placement agents.
In 1993 Villalobos resigned as Los Angeles' deputy mayor for economic development after the Los Angeles Times reported that he had suffered huge gambling losses and filed for personal bankruptcy in the 1980s. What was this guy doing in
Arvco also brokered a deal involving the city’s pension fund, but the office of City Comptroller William C. Thompson Jr. said Mr. Ferrer had not approached Mr. Thompson as part of any deal or for Arvco. Albert Vilalobos contributed $2000 to controller Thompson and his daughter Carissa $4,950.00.
Clueless
Over Bill Lynch’s Dead Body
In
Asset Ratings Fix? In fact the California Pols are so far ahead of
We went through an entire election cycle to elected a new New York City Controller and because of the careful election spin strategies of the candidates to ignore the pension scandal and the absence of media investigation reporting we have no clue of the value of our pension, no clue what the new comptroller will do to get rid of political money managers beyond the new comptroller John Liu statement that he will go back to traditional investments. True News has been reporting the pension fund scandal all along The Silence of the Lions: What the Comptroller Candidates Don't Want You to Know * Everyone is Covering Up the Pension Scandal for Their Own Reasons * OUT OF COMPTROLLER, AS SCANDAL SPREADS, CITY COMPTROLLER CANDIDATES LOOK FOR BIGGER ROCK TO HIDE UNDER
Thompson Opens the Bank for Money Managers (Untraditional Investments)
Mr. Wolf-Powers served as Managing Director - Private Markets for New York City Comptroller William C. Thompson, Jr., from 2003-2005. In this position, 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.”
As reported in the NYT Thompson aide Josh Wolf-Powers’ advisement that Steven Rattner’s private investment firm Quadrangle Group hired the now-indicted Hank Morris as its placement agent. Rattner badly wanted to gain access to investment from the State’s pension fund and according to the Times, “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.” True News has been reporting on the pension scandal all along The Wolf at Thompson's Door * True News: Wolf at Thompson Door, Part II . Avella Opens A Cut
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. On
The Media Pushes for the Mayor
Sometimes, stubbornness pays NYP continues its positive daily editorials of Bloomberg. I guess they want to make sure the public gets the message. There one editorial of Yassky (all the papers) did not work. It all about giving people a positive image of the mayor More Off the Track Positive Spin With the state and city budgets in a sea of red ink this is just another fake public relations spin that the new MTA chairman dumps on the dummy press Off-peak fare slash weighed (NYP)M.T.A. Weighs Lower Fares During Off-Peak Hours (NYT) , Report: MTA To Consider Off-Peak Discount (NY1) The MTA's chief will consider reduced night and weekend fares as part of the new "smart card" program. No wonder why they are spinning with the press and public, the MTA can't even dig a hole properly Bracing for 2nd Ave. Subway The MTA will shell out $500,000 to brace two shaky buildings for underground blasting along the Second Avenue Subway construction route
Road to City Hall Today's Tip Sheet: New Poll Will Take Stock of Mayoral Race (NYT) *** Education Returns To Center Of Mayoral Campaign *** Double Standard for the Times; But Then Why Not? Bloomberg Owns This Town
*** Paying for Monserrate probe (UPDATE) *** Election Officials Fear Poll Workers Won't Show Up on Nov. 3 *** Mayor Bloomberg on what Albany will do in the budget negotiations: "(W)hat they’re going to do is screw the city. It’s the only practical thing for them to do." *** Court Rules In Favor Of Stuy Town, Peter Cooper Tenants *** After Stuy Town Decision, Experts See Real Estate Market "Collapse." Really?
White House Bank $hot by Obama pay czar , U.S. to Order Steep Pay Cuts at Firms That Got Most Aid *** Eyeing a Democratic Win, the President Joins Corzine in New Jersey *** Fate of White House Counsel Is in Doubt *** U.S. to Order Steep Pay Cuts at Firms That Got Most Aid *** Clinton Says Iran and North Korea Must Curb Nuclear Ambitions*** Japan moves to redefine alliance (Wash Post) *** Obama: I'm Not Losing Sleep Over Fox News
Congress AIDS Funding Bill Sails Through the House *** Strains for Democrats in Budget-Balancing Act *** Drug Makers Are Advocacy Group’s Biggest Donors *** Compromise Bill Could Block States on Bank Rules *** House Panel Approves Bill Curbing Insurers' Antitrust Exemption *** Major Wall Street Firms Ramp Up Political Donations, Lobbying
Wall Street and the Economy Bove: Wells Fargo not 'sustainable' *** Financial Woes Plagued Galleon Informant *** As the Dollar Sinks, Oil Skyrockets *** Plug-In Cars Are Almost Here, but Charging Stations Lag *** Morgan Stanley Returns to a Profit ***Bank of America Sells Republic Bank to Private Equity Firms *** $13 an Hour? 500 Sign Up, 1 Wins a Job *** A Slow Summer Hurt Continental and American Airlines *** Waiting for the Next McMansion to Drop *** Galleon a shipwreck: Hedge fund shop to 'wind down' *** BofA reportedly selling First Republic Bank *** Galleon Sinks; Informant Surfaces (WSJ) *** Slump Hits Howard Hughes's Heirs *** Fidelity Boosts Foreign Trading *** Wal-Mart Plans More Price Cuts *** Wall St. Wizards Get Chance to Do It Again - Margaret Carlson, Bloomberg *** Raising the Debt Ceiling - David Broder, Washington Post *** Fed to Step Up Reviews of Compensation at Banks *** The Man Who Could Salvage Wall Street
National In Atlanta, String of Black Mayors May Be Broken *** Virginia and Gun Control Candidates for governor in Virginia should pay attention to the polls that found voters want stricter gun controls
International Pakistani Brigadier Is Assassinated *** Mending Fences, Biden Assures Poland That U.S. Is Watching Over It *** China’s Economy Expands 8.9 Percent *** Britain and Its Central Bank Disagree on Banking Laws *** In Iraq, battling an internal bane (Wash Post) *** Robert Mugabe vs. Zimbabwe (NYT Ed) *** China Expands Cyberspying in U.S. *** For Vatican, New Resolve to Expand *** Saudi Family Feud Roils World Banks
Terror Plot Terror Suspect Held in Boston *** Traitors in our midst: Home-grown Islamic terrorists cropping up all over the United States *** Traitors in Our Midst - New York Daily News
Media and New Tech Cyberspace sings Google, Facebook and MySpace are playing your song -- or hoping to. Three of the Internet's biggest companies and fiercest competitors are all planning to unveil new services designed to help users discover and buy music *** Microsoft, Google get anti-social *** Ax swings at Condé *** Windows 7 Keeps the Good, Tries to Fix Flaws
***2 Deals Hint at Revenue for Twitter ***The Billion Designers of Windows 7 ***Google, Microsoft Intensify Rivalry ***Higher Prices on Windows 7 ***Seth Lipsky: All the News That's Fit to Subsidize*** Comcast subscribers get HBO shows online - for free ***Newsday.com moves to subscriber model *** SIGN OF THE TIMES: $35.6M LOSS IS GOOD NEWS
