Risky bets cost Detroit pension funds $480 million since 2008

[Still a Democrat]

Source: Detroit Free Press

Detroit's two public pensions have reported losses of more than $480 million in risky investments, from hedge funds and vacant land in Texas and Hawaii, to a Detroit office tower and a Pittsburgh casino.

The losses, all since February 2008, include more than $270 million in write-downs this fall alone.

Many of the investments involved secretive middlemen, who pocketed hundreds of thousands of dollars, or were vetted by controversial investment adviser Adrian Anderson and his firm, North Point Advisors, the subjects of earlier Free Press investigations.

A federal grand jury and the Securities and Exchange Commission are investigating some of the deals that soured and Anderson's role in them, the Free Press has learned.

In the meantime, the pensions are paying the legal bills of Anderson and a second adviser who scrutinized failed real estate deals. That adviser received a grand jury subpoena in March.





Read more: http://www.freep.com/article/20101226/NEWS01/12260564/1319/Risky-bets-cost-Detroit-pension-480-million

[sarcasmo]

1. Is Detroit the next one to stop sending out the pension check?

[benld74]

2. THIS is effin CRIMINAL, and the pensions are paying for lawyers for these scum?!?

[defendandprotect]

5. Yes -- it is criminal -- and Congress has been ignoring scams with pensions ...!!

[AndyTiedye]

3. WTF is a Pension Fund Doing Investing in Hedge Funds?

[defendandprotect]

4. "Risky" ...? Or were they doing favors ....???

There's been a lot of game-playing with pension funds --

"watch dogs" permitted serious underfunding based on corporate requests and inane

reasoning --

Evidently some private pensions were used to finance moving US jobs overseas --

and some of the pension funds were used to finance the housing bubble!!

See Catherine Austen Fitts - YouTube



PLUS Congress has known about these developing scandals for decades -- and done nothing!!!

Then, again, maybe we're the ones who have done "nothing" in expecting millionaires and

multi-millionaires in Congress to protect our interests!!

How dumb are we?

[buckrogers1965]

6. Follow the money.

This is strait up theft. Follow the money trail to see who ended up with those millions and you have your villains. In the truest sense of the word. Who else would steal pensions from old people?

[sarcasmo]

7. Does the federal government cover certain portions of local pensions if they fail?