SAN FRANCISCO – The former CEO of the California Public Employee Retirement System, known as CalPERS, plead guilty Friday to getting hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash along with gifts in exchange for favors.
Fred Buenrostro admitted to conspiracy to commit corruption and fraud charges stemming from a conspiracy to trade official acts for cash and benefits, federal officials announced.
In pleading guilty, Buenrostro admitted to conspiring with Alfred J. Villalobos, founder and operator of ARVCO Capital Research LLC.
Villalobos operated ARVCO as a placement agent that solicited investments by public pension funds into private equity funds.
Buenrostro also admitted that he understood that ARVCO was typically paid an agreed-upon fee based on the percentage of the total dollar amount invested by the public pension fund.
Officials said Buenrostro admitted Villalobos provided him approximately $250,000, as well as gifts, domestic and international travel, meals, entertainment, payment for Buenrostro’s wedding, and his subsequent employment at ARVCO after he left CalPERS in May of 2008.
The first two payments were made in paper bags. The last installment came in a shoebox. The handoffs all came at a Sacramento hotel near the Capitol, according to the Sacramento Bee.
In a stunning admission covering years of corruption, the former chief executive of CalPERS said Friday he accepted $200,000 in cash, along with a series of other bribes, from a Lake Tahoe businessman who was attempting to influence billions of dollars in pension fund investment decisions.
Buenrostro admitted he provided Villalobos with access to CalPERS’ confidential information relating to investments, internal deliberations, and other proprietary matters, officials said.
Villalobos, through ARVCO, was the placement agent through which Apollo secured $3 billion in investments by CalPERS, authorities allege.
Buenrostro was CEO at CalPERS from 2002 to 2008.
In addition, Buenrostro admitted the following:
- He began receiving secret benefits from Villalobos no later than 2005 for the purpose of influencing him in the exercise of his powers and duties as CalPERS CEO.
- As part of the conspiracy, Buenrostro admitted that he and Villalobos created fraudulent documents in order to secure fees for ARVCO from Apollo Global Management, a private equity firm based in New York City.
- Buenrostro admitted that after CalPERS’ legal and investment offices declined to sign the first Investor Disclosure letter documenting ARVCO’s relationship with Apollo, Villalobos and Buenrostro conspired to create a series of fraudulent Investor Disclosure letters that were transmitted to Apollo.
- Apollo paid ARVCO a total of approximately $14 million dollars in fees after receiving the fraudulent letters.
- When civil and later criminal investigations were opened into the operations of ARVCO and its role, Buenrostro said he and Villalobos agreed on a false version of facts and subsequently made misrepresentations to, and concealed information from, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the U.S. Postal Inspection and the FBI, about their financial relationship and the authenticity of the Investor Disclosure letters.
Buenrostro and Villalobos have been released on Bond, officials said.
Buenrostro will be sentenced in January and is facing up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000, officials said. Charges against Villalobos are pending. He has entered a not guilty plea.