Dan Primack's Fortune blog post ("New charges in public pension corruption saga", April 24) about why CalPERS refused to sign an investor disclosure letter provided by Apollo Global Management reads more like a best-selling fiction novel and in our view doesn't hold water. With all due respect to Mr. Primack, and we have talked at length with him about this, the reason we didn't sign Apollo's investor disclosure letter is set out in our Special Review and given under oath by former CalPERS staff. (1) We had never, ever seen such a letter in the industry before that one. (2) There was no reason or benefit for CalPERS or our members to sign it and at the time we had no way of knowing the represented facts in the letter were true or not. (3) The fund had nearly closed and there was no business reason for us to sign it. Our staff made a good judgment call by not signing the letter. Even if it had been a different fund or a different placement agent, we still would not have signed it. As clearly spelled out in the charges by the SEC, once CalPERS refused to sign the disclosure letter, Mr. Buenrostro and Mr. Villalobos literally took matters into their own hands, including forging documents, and they did everything they could to do it outside the walls of CalPERS including in a different state. The rest is a sad history of deception and fraud. Whether or not Mr. Primack believes it, those are the facts.
CalPERS is working hard to ensure the retirement and health security of our members, provide help to our employers, and manage our investments to meet our long-term liabilities. We hope this information provides education, insight, and clarity.
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