SACRAMENTO — In 2005, California real estate mogul Terry Fancher wanted to entice public pension systems to place hundreds of millions of dollars in investment funds he managed.
Bypassing seasoned Wall Street advisors such as Morgan Stanley or Credit Suisse First Boston, he turned to Darius Anderson, a young and ambitious Sacramento lobbyist known in the Capitol for his political connections and fundraising prowess. Anderson was good for Fancher, who ultimately won commitments to manage at least $650 million in public retirement money from New York and California.
The arrangement worked for Anderson too. On three deals as a placement agent for Fancher -- setting up meetings, making pitches to pension fund staff, making political donations along with Fancher to the right elected officials -- Anderson and his partners netted more than $5.2 million, records from both states show. The scale of those earnings dwarfed what Anderson, 44, made from operating one of Sacramento's highest-profile lobbying shops or raising money for former Gov. Gray Davis.
Anderson's San Francisco-based placement firm, Gold Bridge Capital, is among dozens subpoenaed last week in New York as part of an investigation involving public retirement funds from coast to coast. Authorities allege that some brokers' payments were diverted as kickbacks to pension officers and their associates. David Loglisci, the New York deputy comptroller who signed off on Fancher's first deal, has been indicted on bribery, money laundering and other charges in a kickback scheme related to other investments.
Neither Anderson nor Fancher has been accused of wrongdoing.
But arrangements like theirs are coming under increasing scrutiny from investigators and financial watchdogs, who ask whether agents like Anderson are getting paid for their high-finance expertise or political access.
"You have to ask the question whether this guy has substantial experience in pension and investment matters," said Edward Siedle, president of Benchmark Financial Services, which helps pension funds investigate abuse.
At the center of the investigation are political and governmental aides to New York's former comptroller, Alan Hevesi, the trustee of its pension fund, who left office in December 2006 in a cloud of scandal. New York Atty. Gen. Andrew Cuomo, who issued last week's subpoenas, has said that many agents who did business with the New York pension fund were not properly licensed.
