Home > News > Regulation > Whistleblower Sues California Public Pension After Alleged Threat of Dismissal
Regulation

Whistleblower Sues California Public Pension After Alleged Threat of Dismissal

An investment analyst has sued the $5.5 billion Alameda County Employees’ Retirement Association for allegedly threatening to fire him after he accused the fund’s CIO of falsifying time slips.

(July 28, 2011)—An investment analyst for the Alameda County Employees’ Retirement Association (ACERA) has claimed in a lawsuit that the $5.5 billion public pension plan threatened to fire him after he accused the fund’s chief investment officer of falsifying time slips to receive full pay while actually taking a vacation.

In the lawsuit filed earlier this month in Alameda County Superior Court, Anthony Macaulay alleged that Chief Investment Officer Betty Tse received more than $14,000 for working when she was actually taking a vacation. When Macaulay raised alarms about the impropriety, the suit claimed, he was given a notice of dismissal, though after he filed an internal complaint he was placed on paid administrative leave two weeks later.

According to the lawsuit, Macaulay seeks job reinstatement and unspecified damages to be determined by a jury. Macaulay, who is black, also accused ACERA of racial discrimination.

“The facts alleged in the complaint set forth a clear case of retaliation by Mr. Macaulay’s supervisor, Betty Tse, almost immediately after Mr. Macaulay spoke up about what he saw as fraudulent activity at ACERA,” Macaulay’s attorney, Steven Tidrick said in a statement to Pensions & Investments.

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ACERA is not the only California public pension fund to wrestle with issues of governance in recent months. In May, Jeffrey Baker, an investment officer at the $8 billion San Diego County Employees Retirement Association (SDCERA), claimed in a civil service complaint that his job was being eliminated because he raised concerns over outside consultant Lee Partridge’s risk limits. In the complaint, Baker alleged that Partridge breached the limits of its role, assuming excessive risk in its emerging markets and Treasury bond portfolios—risk limits that went beyond what the board of trustees allowed.



<p>To contact the <em>aiCIO</em> editor of this story: Benjamin Ruffel at <a href='mailto:bruffel@assetinternational.com'>bruffel@assetinternational.com</a></p>
Home > News > Regulation > Justice Dept. Accuses Wells Fargo of Preying on Black Borrowers
Regulation

Justice Dept. Accuses Wells Fargo of Preying on Black Borrowers

As banks around the country have faced lawsuits by pension funds, regulators, and other agencies over their mortgage-lending practices during the housing market collapse, Wells Fargo now battles allegations of discriminatory lending.

(July 27, 2011) — Walls Fargo — the nation’s largest home mortgage lender and the fourth-largest US bank by assets — is the target of a lawsuit by the Department of Justice for allegedly preying on black borrowers during the housing bubble.

Currently, in an effort to dodge a public lawsuit and settle the accusations, the bank is in the midst of pre-lawsuit negotiations with the Justice Department, the Huffington Post has reported.

This is not the first time the bank has battled allegations over its lending practices. Earlier this month, Wells Fargo agreed to pay $125 million to a group of pension funds to settle a lawsuit over the sale of mortgage pass-through certificates.

A group of investors including pensions funds in Detroit and New Orleans brought a proposed class-action lawsuit in 2009, accusing Wells Fargo and several underwriters of misleading them about the risks of mortgage-backed securities they purchased from 2005 through 2007 worth over $67.5 billion. A federal judge in San Jose, California in 2010 threw out claims against underwriters including Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, and UBS and narrowed the claims against Wells Fargo.

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Similarly, in late June, Bank of America agreed to pay $14 billion to a group of investors who had bought unsound mortgage-backed securities through the bank’s Countrywide Financial subsidiary.

“This is another important step we are taking in the interest of our shareholders to minimize the impact of future economic uncertainty and put legacy issues behind us,” Brian T. Moynihan, the bank’s chief executive, said in a statement. “We will continue to act aggressively, and in the best interest of our shareholders, to clean up the mortgage issues largely stemming from our purchase of Countrywide.”



To contact the <em>aiCIO</em> editor of this story: Paula Vasan at <a href='mailto:pvasan@assetinternational.com'>pvasan@assetinternational.com</a>; 646-308-2742

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