By fitsnews – May 25, 2012
A hedge fund run by a former Bear Stearns executive made $38 million managing $930 million worth of investments for South Carolina’s pension fund in 2011. Unfortunately, the fund only returned 2 to 13 percent on these investments.
Meanwhile a rival investment firm – Bridgewater Associates LP – returned 17 to 24 percent on the $1.3 billion worth of pension fund investments that it managed, despite receiving a much smaller fee of $25 million.
Do those numbers add up? Of course not … which is why S.C. Treasurer Curtis Loftis has been aggressively targeting the pension fund’s more exorbitant fees.
So …what did Loftis get from the state’s failed status quo in return for his efforts? A full-frontal smear campaign designed to impugn his integrity and remove him from his oversight role on the investment panel – a campaign in which S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley, Comptroller General Richard Eckstrom, State Sen. Greg Ryberg, The (Columbia, S.C.) State newspaper and members of the corrupt S.C. Retirement System Investment Commission (SCRSIC) are all alleged to have participated.
Thankfully, their efforts failed.
Not only did lawmakers vote to keep Loftis on the investment panel, but the S.C. Attorney General’s office cleared him of any wrongdoing related to the manufactured allegations against him.
Good … because these numbers are further proof that Loftis is needed on this panel.
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