Feds: Pension Exec Moved $2B for Coke, Hookers, Other Bribes
NEW YORK (AP) — A former top official at the country’s third-largest pension fund and two broker-dealers were charged Wednesday in what a federal prosecutor described as a classic bribery scheme that steered $2 billion in trades in exchange for drugs, prostitutes, vacations and U.S. Open tennis tickets.
“The hard-earned pension savings of New Yorkers should never serve as a vehicle for corrupt, personal enrichment,” Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement, calling the alleged pay-for-play arrangement a “classic, quid-pro-quo bribery scheme.”
Navnoor Kang, the ex-head of the $184 billion New York State Common Retirement Fund’s fixed income trades, received more than $100,000 worth of bribes in the form of trips, gifts, luxury hotel stays and other payoffs from broker-dealers Deborah Kelley and Gregg Schonhorn, prosecutors said.
More: Feds: Pension exec moved $2B for coke, hookers, other bribes