CIM and Calpers

Some holes being filled on a story that's been slithering around for a while. The L.A.-based developer paid investment middleman Alfred Villalobos almost $10 million in fees to be hooked up with California's big pension fund, and the Calpers folks apparently came through, to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars, the Sacramento Bee reports. Villalobos, who just happened to have been on the Calpers board some years earlier and was chummy with the fund's CEO, has made about $60 million representing private-equity firms, real estate groups and others looking for Calpers dollars. Calpers is now looking into the guy's activities. From the Bee:

Villalobos, a one-time CalPERS board member, approached the pension fund on a proposed $250 million investment in CIM, a firm that specialized in urban real estate. In recent years it has developed such [Sacramento] projects as the seven-story loft apartments at Eighth and J streets and the K Street complex anchored by the Cosmopolitan theater. According to a report at the time in The Bee, Villalobos was aided by another former CalPERS board member, Kurato Shimada, plus retired state Sen. William Campbell. Shimada wasn't listed in the documents released today by CalPERS. He has since rejoined the CalPERS board. He declined to speak to a reporter today.

Calpers wound up forking over more than $400 million and CIM has been paying Villalobos since late 2000. For those who have been following CIM, the firm has its paws all over L.A. City Hall. From the LAT:

Over the last seven years, city agencies have agreed to provide CIM with $58 million worth of loans and subsidies. And two city pension boards have agreed to invest up to $115 million in CIM funds on behalf of city retirees.