Administration February 18, 2010

CalPERS Calls out Firms not Responding to Placement Agent Info Request

February 18, 2010 (PLANSPONSOR.com) – The California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) has released a list of 11 firms with which it has invested that did not reply to its request for information on their use of placement agents.
Reported by

Reuters reports that CalPERS announced the following firms have not responded to its original request for information on placement agents:

  • EnerTech Capital
  • Fenway Partners
  • GTCR
  • Information Technology Ventures
  • Markstone Capital
  • Pinnacle Ventures
  • Ripplewood
  • TSG Capital
  • Stark Investments
  • AREA Property Partners
  • Page Mill Advisors

 

According to Reuters, a CalPERS spokesman was not immediately available to say if the firms will face any consequences for not responding to the fund’s request, or if the Markstone Capital in its list is Israeli venture capital firm, Markstone Capital Group LLC, which earlier this month said it would pay $18 million to settle its role in a probe by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.

An investigation by Cuomo of New York’s state pension fund has been looking into how the agents have been working there behind the scenes and exploiting political connections. His probe, and a parallel effort by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, last year looked into connections between placement agents in New York and California, which drew attention to the activities of the middlemen at CalPERS, the news report noted (see CalPERS Releases Placement Agent Disclosures ).

In its effort to crack down on the use of placement agents, CalPERS is supporting legislation to regulate the middlemen as lobbyists (see Placement Agent Legislation Introduced in California).

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