CALIFORNIA (HedgeCo.Net) – The California Public Employees’ Retirement System, [CalPERS] was sued over non-disclosure of fees paid to hedge funds and venture capital companies. The California FirstAmendment Coalition filed the lawsuit; the group serves as an advocacy coalition for free speech and open government, according to published records. The suit was filed in state court in SanFrancisco.
A spokesperson for CalPERS, Brad Pacheco said the company has not received a copy of the suit, he however commented that “Calpers has the greatest transparency of any public pension fund in the world when it comes to investing dollars into the private arena.”
Peter Scheer, executive director of the California First Amendment Coalition said CalPERS spends nearly $500 million yearly on management fees paid to hedge funds and other groups. According to the group, CalPERS refused to disclose its records of management fees paid to hedge funds and venture capital groups, claiming that such information are �trade secrets�
Pacheco explained that CalPERS discloses private equity fees paid to such groups in its annual report, and according to him, California laws �protects disclosure of information that is critical to protecting our ability to generate returns for the pension fund so that taxpayers won’t have to pay higher contributions toward public employee pensions.”
CalPERS recently said in published reports that it might boost its hedge fund investments to as much as US$5.2 billion. This allocation makes CalPERS the largest known single hedge fund investor. The pension fund manager initially appropriated US$1 billion to its hedge fund management portfolio in November 2000. CalPERS�pension fund is currently valued at about $166 billion; its hedge fund portfolio returned about 16.7% in 2003.
Paul Oranika
Editor-in-Chief
HedgeCo.Net
Email: Editor@hedgeco.net
HedgeCo.Net is a premier hedge fund database and community for qualified and accredited investors only. Membership on www.hedgeco.net is FREE and EASY. We also offer FREE LISTINGS for Hedge Funds!
Be sure to check out our sister sites. www.hedgefundlounge.com, www.hedgefundtools.com, and www.hedgefundemployment.com.
