$125 Million Plus Paid to Placement Agents for CalPERS Deals

The California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS), which provides retirement, health, and other financial programs to more than 1.6 million public employees, retirees, and their families and more than 3,000 public employers, has hired Washington based law firm Steptoe & Johnson to investigate the use of placement agents after it was disclosed the agents were paid $125 million plus to help them win business with the CalPERS.

Three former CalPERS board members were among the placement agents, including William D. Crist, a longtime board president, who’d lobbied the fund for an investment firm interested in attaining a share of CalPERS’ $205 billion in assets.

“The fact that people are being lobbied by people who have relations with current board members, even though they are former board members, is totally inappropriate,” said Dave Elder, a former assemblyman from Long Beach who monitors CalPERS for public employee unions.