Crony capitalist Villalobos may be one of many reasons California’s pension fund CalPERS is broke.
Crony capitalist Alfred R. Villalobos, who has been named in a state influence-peddling lawsuit, filing for bankruptcy in Nevada with almost $5 million owed to Nevada casinos in addition to other debts. Villalobos was a deputy mayor of Los Angeles for five months in 1993 and a board member of CalPERS, California’s giant pension fund, from 1993 to 1995. Over the last dozen years, Villalobos took in more than $50 million in commissions for brokering billion dollar deals between investment managers and CalPERS, as well as other government pension funds. One can only imagine how prolific a gambler, as the Attorney General’s office put it, he must be. The AG office is opposing the Nevada bankruptcy filing, arguing that Villalobos’ assets, which include “16 residences, 21 bank accounts, a fleet of luxury automobiles and artwork,” should remain with a California-based receiver authorized two weeks before the bankruptcy filing. One might hypothesize that such extravagance may have been fueled by alcoholism, which also could explain some of the grandiose promises made by politicians to their labor union cronies, resulting in a half-trillion dollar shortfall in California state government’s all-too-generous pension system.