New charges filed against ex-CalPERS chief
By Marc Lifsher, Los Angeles Times
SACRAMENTO — A federal grand jury Thursday handed down new and expanded corruption charges against investment deal “placement agent” Alfred J.R. Villalobos, a central figure in the 2009 influence-peddling scandal that rocked the country’s largest public pension fund.
The new indictment, superseding one last month, accuses the former board member of the California Public Employees’ Retirement System and former deputy mayor of Los Angeles of conspiring with and bribing CalPERS’ then-chief executive to close a $3-billion deal with a Wall Street private equity firm.
Villalobos, 64, of Stateline, also is accused of defrauding the United States, engaging in a scheme to conceal material facts, and conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, said Melinda Haag, the U.S. attorney in San Francisco.
