CALPERS Scandal

The L.A.Times reports:

State Controller and gubernatorial candidate Steve Westly steered California's giant pension system to invest in a fledgling venture capital fund whose politically connected partners helped him raise campaign cash.

Before Westly's involvement, the pension board's outside advisors had rejected the fund as ill-suited for its portfolio. After the investment was made, one of the partners became enmeshed in an unrelated pension-fund scandal in Illinois, pleading guilty to attempted extortion.


As New York-based Healthpoint Partners LP lobbied the California Public Employees Retirement System in 2003 and 2004 to invest in their fund, two managing directors, including the one in Illinois, raised money for Westly at events in New York and Chicago. One partner had run for governor of New York; the other had been a finance chairman for the Democratic National Committee.

Eat your heart out Enron.