Thursday, February 17, 2011

Does Julio Ramierz, Alfred Villalobos, Hank Morris,(ALL GUILTY OF PENSION FRAUD) Link To Villaraigosa & City Hall (MORE "CONNECT THE DOTS" THAN EVER!)

[If Julio Ramirez, Jr. doesn't link to L.A. City Hall elected officials, then how come he used to work for Wetherly Capitial as their political fundraising guy (before he went to prison over pension fraud, relating to Wetherly Capital functions). He worked under Dan Weinstein, whose name you see on this invitation. (Dan cut a "guilty" deal with Cuomo over his actions at Wetherly. Plus I see Kely Candaele's name. They ALSO HAD ONE OF THESE FUNDRAISERS FOR CHRISTINE ESSEL, where Richard Riordan proclaimed, "Chris is OUR GAL!" She's now head of the CRA.)]

CONNECT THE DOTS: Park Hill, Julio Ramirez, Jr., Wetherly Capital, Richard Ziman, Henry "Hank Aaron"Morris.
CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL OF LOS ANGELES (for the kids!) - http://ow.ly/3YNeI: - Julio Ramirez, Jr. is a member of the Board of Trustees and serves on the Investment Committee. He also serves on the Virtual Financial Investment Community Campaign Committee. Julio and his wife, Annette, are members of First Families.
Julio serves as Managing Principal of Park Hill Group LLC., a subsidiary of The Blackstone Group, one of the world’s leaders in discretionary private equity and hedge fund investment.
Julio has over 20 years of consulting experience in the public sector working for various government agencies and elected officials. Julio is Chairman of the Board of Trustees at Pacific Oaks College and Children’s School in Pasadena.
He is also a trustee of Otis College of Art and Design, a Trustee (and governor) of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles and a Director for the Los Angeles Metropolitan YMCA.
Julio and Annette are major supporters of Mt. Wilson Vista Council (Girl Scouts), where Annette serves as First Vice President.
Annette also serves as a trustee of Flintridge Preparatory School and has been involved with Para Los NiƱos. The British Counsel General appointed her as the Chair of the West Coast Marshall Scholars Selection Committee. A political consultant, Annette served as chief fundraiser to former Los Angeles Mayor, James Hahn.
Julio and Annette have two small children and live in San Marino.

JULIO RAMIREZ USED TO LIVE IN MONTEBELLO AND WORKED FOR
94' CITY OF MONTEBELLO-----LIVED IN MONTEBELLO (LOW TO MED PRICE HOME PRICES)
96' THE L.A. CITY ATTORNEY'S OFFICE -----LIVED IN MONTEBELLO (LOW TO MED PRICE HOME PRICES)
00' SELF EMPLOYED -----LIVED IN GLENDALE (HIGH PRICED HOMES)
02' WEATHERLY CAPITAL GROUP/EXECUTIVE----LIVED IN LA CANADA (HIGH PRICED HOMES)
06' WEATHERLY CAPITAL GROUP/PRINCIPAL/INVESTOR/BUSINESS AND WORKED FOR PARK HILL GROUP---LIVED IN LA CANADA
08' CONTINUES TO WORK FOR ABOVE---MOVED TO SAN MARINO (MULTI MILLION DOLLAR MANSIONS)
1300 Circle DriveSan Marino, CA 91108
Owner: JULIO AND CASTRO ANNETTE RAMIREZ JR
Total land value: $3,953,520
Total building value: $1,300,500
Total value for property: $5,254,020
Recording date: 02/15/2007
Year built: 1927
Effective year built: 1932
Area of property: 6,070 square feet
Assessment for fiscal year: 2008/2009
HAHN FUNDRAISERS: Annette Castro and husband, lobbyist Julio Ramirez
ANNETTE CASTRO (wife of Julio Ramirez, Jr.) WORKED FOR RICHARD RIORDAN...THEN WENT TO WORK FOR ALARCON...THEN WENT TO WORK FOR JAMES HAHN! (DAMN, she must be good!)
"Prior to joining Riordan's campaign in November, 1992, the 29-year-old Castro, a native of Whittier and USC graduate, had worked two years for former U.S. Sen. Alan Cranston and was a scheduler for President Clinton's campaign in California."



Alarcon Hires Riordan's Press Secretary : Government: Annette Castro will act as chief City Hall adviser. Observers say the move will help the councilman get his message out.

http://articles.latimes.com/1994-02-12/local/me-22156_1_city-hall-adviser

February 12, 1994|JOHN SCHWADA | TIMES STAFF WRITER

Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alarcon on Friday announced that he has hired Mayor Richard Riordan's press secretary and confidant, Annette Castro, to be his chief City Hall adviser. Some observers see the move as a bid to bring new media and political savvy to an office that at times has seemed adrift.
In an interview, Alarcon praised his current staff but said he expected Castro to coordinate his legislative and media programs and provide his office with valuable experience in dealing with the federal government and with Riordan, who can play a key role in Alarcon's legislative agenda.
http://articles.latimes.com/2002/jan/11/local/me-21858: L.A. United, the political action committee Hahn formed to oppose a ballot initiative, recently hired as a fund-raiser Annette Castro, former aide to then-City Councilman Richard Alarcon.
AND THEN, THIS:

"...Castro becomes the latest member of Riordan's original City Hall team to depart, joining Deputy Mayor Jadine Neilsen, who left to become a private consultant; Deputy Mayor Al Villalobos, who resigned under a cloud of news stories about his gambling and business misadventures; and press aide Tom Kreusopon, who now works for Los Angeles City Councilman Rudy Svorinich.

Castro developed a close rapport with Riordan while guiding the multimillionaire businessman with no media smarts through his 1993 campaign for mayor."

AL (ALFRED) VILLALOBOS WORKED FOR RICHARD RIORDAN AND WITH JULIO RAMIREZ ON PENSION FRAUD, I MEAN INVESTMENTS. THEY'RE ALL CONNECTED TO RIORDAN AND HE IS CONNECTED TO AEG, MORET, VILLARAIGOSA & ALATORRE.

http://articles.latimes.com/2009/nov/05/business/fi-calpers5: Villalobos arrested.
http://blogs.wsj.com/privateequity/2010/06/16/lifestyles-of-the-rich-and-famous-placement-agent-edition/: A recent report related to a court-ordered asset seizure from Alfred Villalobos gives a glimpse into the lifestyle of the former California Public Employees’ Retirement System board member, who faces civil charges filed by the California Attorney General’s office in the Los Angeles Superior Court.
California’s Attorney General Jerry Brown filed a suit in May alleging that Villalobos “cultivated improper relationships” with former Calpers chief executive Fred Buenrostro, who was also charged.

http://www.sacbee.com/2010/08/15/2959682/policy-shift-helped-lobbyist-crack.html#mi_rss=State%20Politics: Attorney General Jerry Brown says in a lawsuit that Villalobos bribed his way to success, delivering job offers, junkets and other goodies to three top officials. Villalobos has angrily denied any wrongdoing, and no criminal charges have been filed.

PENSION DOLLARS HARD AT WORK
- http://inlandpolitics.com/blog/2010/08/27/sacbee-suspended-calpers-executive-resigns/: In the lawsuit, state officials said Villalobos spent $50,000 chartering a jet to fly himself and Shahinian to New York. They stayed at a five-star hotel and attended a black-tie museum fundraiser honoring Leon Black, the head of Apollo, and movie director Martin Scorsese. The trip cost $63,000 in total. the lawsuit says Villalobos bribed him by taking him on a lavish, all-expenses-paid trip to New York in 2007. Weeks later, without telling anyone about the trip, Shahinian helped persuade the CalPERS board to invest $600 million with one of Villalobos’ clients, Apollo Global Management. (A whole NEW can of pension worms. It's a pretty tight-knit and small circle of pension pilfering politicians and cronies.)

In its subpoena, the SEC also demanded records of any contact between Broidy and Lou Moret, a Los Angeles business consultant who joined the CalPERS board in early 2008. As reported by The Bee, Moret paid $67,000 last year to settle a civil fraud lawsuit. That suit wasn't connected to any of the pension fund investigations.
http://www.vote29.com/newmyblog/archives/354
FRANK VILLALOBOS, HEAD OF BARRIO PLANNERS, IN EAST LA, is tied to L.A. County Supervisor Gloria Molina and her husband, Ron Martinez. It's ACROSS THE STREET FROM LOU MORET'S BROTHER LAW FIRM AND (phony?) NON PROFIT.
NOW MAYBE SOME OF YOU CAN UNDERSTAND WHY THEY ARE TRYING TO COVER UP PENSION LOSSES, DEBT/ LOST ALTERNATIVE INVESTMENT MONEY WITH CRA MONEY -- AND THE ALLEGED PAYBACK SCHEMES.
HERE'S A GOOD ONE (a BAD one, actually): http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2522964/posts: Former Bill Clinton money man linked to Starr scandal (another Ponzi schemer nabbed)
NY POST ^ | 5/28/10 | DAN MANGAN

Posted on Friday, May 28, 2010 6:53:12 AM by Liz
Marvin Rosen, a NY lawyer, was co-finance chair for Clinton's 1992 campaign in Florida, and later became DNC finance chair. It was recently revealed that Rosen's Diamond Edge Capital Partners was paid $3.25M to act as a middleman for NY state pension funds placed with various investment firms when the pension funds were being run by Democrat state Comptroller Alan Hevesi who resigned in disgrace. Rosen would sometimes accompany accused Ponzi scammer Kenneth Starr when they met with potential investors in Starr's money-management firm.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
BACKSTORY 8/29/07------Hank Morris----top political consultant to former Democrat state Comptroller Alan Hevesi is affiliated with a slew of companies - including several using the address of his East Hampton home and one in the British Virgin Islands - that received pension-fund fees and are the subject of an investigation. Democratic campaign strategist Hank Morris listed the five firms on a report filed with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, the largest nongovernmental regulator of U.S. securities firms. Four of the firms - Nosemote LLC, Pantigo Emerging LLC, PB Placement LLC and Purpose LLC - share Morris' East Hampton address.
Democrat Morris listed himself as the "sole member" of Nosemote, Pantigo Emerging and PB Placement, and said that Nosemote makes up half the members of Purpose. For the fifth firm, Athena Capitol Advisors Ltd., which has an address in Tortola, British Virgin Islands, Morris lists himself as a 50% owner, vice president and treasurer.
According to Morris' filing, all the entities "act as intermediaries between money [managers] and institutional investors to facilitate introductions and resulting investments." A source with knowledge of th AG probe said each of the five Morris entities received placement fees from companies that won pension-fund business during Hevesi's four years in office. The state Comptroller's Office denied a request from The Post for a breakdown on how much in fees were paid to the individual firms, and from what companies.
The Post has reported that investigators believe that another firm employing Morris - Searle & Co. - raked in between $13-18 million in fees from firms doing business with NY state pension fund, with Morris keeping the bulk of the money. Searle & Co., which is headed by Robert Searle, a longtime friend of Morris, recently amended its latest filings with the SEC to show that it took in $7.7 million in placement fees in 2005-06 and paid out $7.3 million in placement-fee expenses. SOURCE http://www.nypost.com/seven/08292007/news/regionalnews/more_hev_pal_firms_got_fees.htm
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On May 12, 2009, the SEC announced charges against Julio Ramirez, Jr, formerly affiliated with LA broker-dealers DAV/Wetherly Financial, L.P. and Park Hill Group LLC, in connection with a multi-million dollar kickback scheme involving New York’s largest pension fund. (snip).
Ramirez Jr, a San Marino businessman with long-standing connections to LA City Hall has pleaded guilty to criminal securities fraud as part of a probe of alleged pay-to-play corruption at a NY state gov't pension fund....... Ramirez is a former employee of Wetherly Capital Group, an LA investment marketing firm that allegedly gave kickbacks to a top political advisor of disgraced ex-NY Comptroller Alan Hevesi.
Dav-Wetherly Financial, L P
11601 Wilshire Blvd # 300
Los Angeles, CA 90025-0509
Location Type: Single Location
Est. Annual Sales: $68,000
Est.# of Employees: 1
An Israeli company-----Giza Venture Capital----- paid DAV-Wetherly Financial of Los Angeles, a substantial finder's fee, after it got authority to manage $20 million in NY state pension funds in 2005. ... DAV-Wetherly, in turn, secretly gave part of the fee to a Connecticut-based company run by NY political insiders. (ED: The Israeli connection is suspicious----a crooked individual can debark in Tel Aviv from anywhere in the world, deposit a suitcase of cash in any bank, and no one asks where it came from, or whether taxes were paid on it. Do any pols have secret accounts in Israeli banks? Duh.)
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May 12, 2009-----the SEC announced charges against Julio Ramirez, Jr., formerly affiliated with LA broker-dealers DAV/Wetherly Financial, L.P. and Park Hill Group LLC, in connection with a multi-million dollar kickback scheme involving New York’s largest pension fund. (snip)
Litigation Release No. 21036
SEC v. Henry Morris et al., 09-CV-2518 (SDNY) (CM)
On May 12, 2009, the SEC announced charges against Julio Ramirez, Jr., who was formerly affiliated with LA broker-dealers DAV/Wetherly Financial, L.P. and Park Hill Group LLC, in connection with a multi-million dollar kickback scheme involving New York's largest pension fund. In an amended complaint attached to a motion filed today in federal district court in Manhattan, the SEC alleges that Ramirez participated in the fraudulent scheme by helping his friend and associate Henry "Hank" Morris extract kickback payments from Aldus Equity Partners, an investment management firm that was seeking to win investment business from the New York State Common Retirement Fund (Retirement Fund). The SEC has previously charged Morris and David Loglisci with orchestrating this wide-ranging scheme to enrich Morris and others and has alleged that Aldus and one of its founding principals, Saul Meyer, also participated in the scheme by agreeing to pay kickbacks to Morris.
According to the SEC's amended complaint, Ramirez facilitated Morris's scheme by contacting Meyer and making clear to him that Aldus must pay a kickback to Morris to secure an investment from the Retirement Fund. Although Aldus was already negotiating with the Retirement Fund's investment staff about the proposed investment at the time, Aldus agreed to kick back 35% of its management fees to a shell entity run by Morris. Morris in turn paid Ramirez a portion of those fees. As a result of the quid pro quo, Aldus secured the Retirement Fund's emerging fund portfolio business, and Ramirez shared in the profits even though he performed no legitimate services. The SEC's amended complaint alleges that Ramirez aided and abetted violations of Section Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5, and Sections 206(1) and 206(2) of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940. The complaint seeks permanent injunctions against future violations of the federal securities laws, disgorgement of ill-gotten gains with prejudgment interest, and financial penalties. The SEC's investigation is continuing. In a parallel criminal action, the Office of the Attorney General of the State of New York today announced the unsealing of criminal charges against Ramirez.
For further information, see Litigation Release No. 20963 (March 19, 2009), Litigation Release No. 21001 (April 15, 2009) and Litigation Release No. 21018 (April 30, 2009).
http://www.sec.gov/litigation/litreleases/2009/lr21036.htm
JULIO RAMIREZ, JR CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS (No Name Unfamiliar! (Pension Fraud 101 from the TOP? The national tippy-top?) Click here.
SEE ALSO: FBI: Here's Mayor Villaraigosa...PENSION FRAUD 101 - An Introduction (A LOT OF LINKS TO POSTS!)
OH NO...VILLALOBOS LINKED TO VILLARGOSA: Here's what's to come NEXT on PensionGATE 2011:

October 14, 1999: When
Alfred R Villalobos a Republican associated with TELACU tried to get a contract worth $750,000 for persuading the state pension board. Mabie lost to the rival camper Antonio Villaraigosa.

Dec 26, 2009 - Recently released documents show that CIM paid former Los Angeles Deputy Mayor Alfred JR Villalobos nearly $16 million in fees for .... and Renewable Resources Group a firm headed by Ari Swiller a friend of and fundraiser for LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa bought 48000 acres of land ...From … , CIM tie probed; The developer paid middleman Villalobos $16 million to...
May 6, 2010 - In addition, on May 6, 2010, the California Attorney General filed a civil complaint against Alfred Villalobos and his company, Arvco Capital Research, LLC (a placement agent that AGM has used), and Federico Buenrostro Jr., the former CEO of CalPERS ...AGM is cooperating with all such investigations and other reviews. In addition, on May 6, 2010, the California Attorney General filed a civil complaint against Alfred Villalobos and his company, Arvco Capital Research, LLC (a placement agent that AGM has used), and Federico Buenrostro Jr., the former CEO of CalPERS , alleging conduct in violation of certain California laws in connection with CalPERS' purchase of securities in various funds managed by AGM and ...

MORE TO COME...