California Public Employees’ Retirement System – CalPERS – is not suffering from simple incompetence, now we find out they are downright corrupt. The Chief Executive Officer has been convicted and sentenced to four and a half years in prison for “accepting more than $ 200,000 in bribes and trying to steer investments to help an associate.”
In a story the Enterprise Record saw fit to bury,
http://www.chicoer.com/business/20160531/california-pension-fund-ceo-sentenced-for-bribery
Federico Buenrostro admitted that he accepted cash, a trip around the world, and even allowed his associate to pay for his wedding at Lake Tahoe. A 66 year old man? What an idiot. 66 year old men are supposed to have better judgement. How did this man get the job in the first place?
His associate, who committed suicide under the pressure of the investigation, was a former investment manager and even a former CalPERS board member. These are the kind of people Jerry “The Moonbeam” Brown hires to run our state finances.
You know, Jerry’s been investigated for stuff like this himself.
Four and a half years? Apparently they gave him a “plea deal” – “the U. S. attorney’s office asked for a four- year term, citing Buenrostro’s cooperation in the case against Villalobos.” That seems outrageous to me. “As part of his plea deal, Buenrostro acknowledged giving Villalobos access to confidential investment information and forging letters that allowed firms connected with Villalobos to collect a $ 14 million commission on $ 3 billion worth of pension fund investments.”
The US Attorney admitted, “ This was one of the most startling and serious cases of public corruption in the history of the state of California…,” he said. “ That being said, Mr. Buenrostro did come for ward and admit to what he had done.”
Why is Charles Manson in prison? He’s admitted his role in the Tate-LaBianca killings, and wow, that seems to be enough to the US Attorney.
And this last detail reminds me of the post I did the other day about the local arsonist who has been arrested so many times for stalking – “Prosecutors sought the shorter sentence despite Buenrostro getting sent to jail when he violated the terms of his probation on a misdemeanor domestic violence charge by making contact with the victim, authorities say. He pleaded no contest in that case in March.”
Is that the woman he married in Lake Tahoe?
What we are not going to hear is how this stuff is routine at CalPERS and every other state agency.
We are complete jackasses to go on putting up with this. All say “Bray!”
Chico Taxpayers Association 
Yup, it’s just the tip of the iceberg.
You’ve got politicians promising public sector employees pensions the taxpayers can’t possibly afford and then politicians hand the loot extracted from said taxpayers for said pensions over to criminals.
And then we are told we must raise our local and state taxes.
And in the meantime old Jerry and his cronies are all getting raises because they are doing such a great job! And the voters keep electing these politicians and approving their tax increases. Gotta love the gooberment and the society we live in.
http://calwatchdog.com/2016/06/01/legislators-governor-get-4-percent-raise/
Looking at Jerry’s salary, which is almost ceremonial, I am reminded – his staff get the real salaries.
http://publicpay.ca.gov/Reports/State/StateEntity.aspx?entityid=3786&fiscalyear=2014
He’s got 138 employees, starting with three “senior assistants” who make over $200,000/year a piece plus benefits. Jerry’s secretary makes almost as much as he does – $180,000/year. The total payroll for 2014 was about $10 million in salaries and another $3 million in retirement/health insurance.
I’m not sure what Walter Cronkite would say, but I’ll say – Americans, especially Californians, are apparently too stupid to elect their own leaders.
Brown and his wife are millionaires several times over. With his salary and benefits he probably pulls in around a quarter million a year but you are right, there are bureaucrats and staffers who make more.
Our politicians have milked the system to amass fortunes outside of their already generous government pay checks and benefits.
And it’s sad that people think politicians like Brown are one of them because Brown used to drive Plymouth or flew on Southwest with the hoi polloi. I bet Brown and his ilk despise the little people.
I remember those days – I was a college student in Sacramento, I used to ride my bike by his apartment building and he was a regular sight. He made a big deal of eating at local restaurants, drinking at local bars, being out on the sidewalk with the regular people. I fell for that bullshit, hook, line and sinker. Now I feel pretty dumb!
I lost respect for him after the ’92 election. He really went after Bill Clinton in the beginning, but fell off and let Clinton take the nomination. Kind of like this little tussle on Face the Nation:
Dang, I forgot how slick Slick Willy was. He and his wife were and still are corrupt as hell but the corruption charges just slide off him like water off the back of a duck.
All that, plus new stuff about Hillary, and Trump pulls out Vince Foster? My husband has been convinced since the beginning that Trump’s position is to get Hillary elected.