Does This Story EXPOSE California Pension Scandal TO THE CORE ("The Godfather of Pension Agents")

IS RICHARD ZIMAN THE UNDISCLOSED GODFATHER OF PLACEMENT AGENTS?
by Anonymous Zuma Dogg Fan

The press is missing the boat on the incestuous relationship between Wetherly Capital, DAV Wetherly, Dan Weinstein, Vicky Schiff, Richard Ziman, Peter Borges, Rexford Industrial, American Value Partners (AVP), and Arden Realty. Wetherly Capital and its owners Weinstein, Schiff, Borges, and Ziman are deeply embroiled in the New York, New Mexico, Los Angeles, and possibly nationwide (Connecticut and others) pension fund scandal involving placement agents. The New York and Federal indictments state that Wetherly shared placement fees with indicted Hank Morris around the country including, New Mexico, California, and Los Angeles

Although only listed as a technical advisor on the website and claims to be unpaid, the brains, brawn and political influence behind Wetherly is Los Angeles real estate magnate Richard Ziman. It is clear that Richard Ziman, the founder and seed capital of Wetherly, Rexford, AVP, and Arden, is the Godfather controlling the strings of his puppets. As a founder and co-owner of Wetherly Capital and DAV Wetherly, it is shocking that Ziman has raised millions of dollars for his AVP and Rexford funds.

Ziman together with his “CAPO” Dan Weinstein have, for many years, donated and bundled large amounts of campaign contributions and have close relationship with top elected officials across the Country, including, the Clintons, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, Former California Governor Gray Davis, former California Controller Steve Westly, California Attorney General Jerry Brown, disgraced New York State Comptroller Alan Hevesi, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, former California Treasurer Phil Angelides, Mayor Villagrosa, and many others. Daphna and Richard Ziman open their Beverly Hills mansion countless times a year for political candidates, many of whom wield power and influence critical to Wetherly’s success as a placement agent.

Ziman, Weinstein, Schiff, and Borges have often used their political influence and their Wetherly platform to raise billions of dollars from public pension funds around the country. In so doing, they collected untold tens of millions of dollars in placement fees.

It is well known that current Connecticut Treasurer Denise Nappier use to work for Frank Borges (former Connecticut Treasure Frank Borges founded Landmark Private Equity Fund sometime after leaving office). Frank and Denise have maintained a very close relationship over the years. Because of this relationship, Peter Borges, Frank’s brother and co-owner of Wetherly Capital, DAV Wetherly, and AVP, has been able to reap untold millions of dollars in placement fees by introducing funds to Connecticut.

To be clear, Peter Borges is a placement agent. His brother Frank is past Treasurer of Connecticut. Denise Nappier worked for Frank. Peter Borges is not only a placement agent but is an owner of a real estate fund of funds named American Value Partners (AVP). In addition, the Godfather, Richard Ziman, has an ownership interest in all the people and companies involved.

Wetherly counts among its significant clients the following:

1. Arthur Levine and his partner Lauren Leichtman of Levine-Leichtman Capital Partners;
2. Henry Cisnero of City View;
3. Tony Ressler and John Kissick of Ares Capital;
4. Tony Ressler’s brother, Richard Ressler of CIM;
5. Roy Disney and Stanley Gold Shamrock;
6. Brad Freeman, US Ambassador Ron Spogli and William Wardlaw of Freeman & Spogli;
7. Gerry Pasky of Aurora Capital; and
8. Richard Ziman, Vicky Schiff, and Peter Borges of American Value Partners.

I've Had Enough of The Nunez Posse's State Bankrupting Cronie-Corruption (And I Plan on Doing Something About It!)

Watch this blog for the story on how a bunch of local political thugs drove this city and state in bankruptcy out of CD 14 over the LACERS and CalPERS pension funds.

Hey Knucklehead and Company, the people you hide behind are sick of you, so they want me to show you how we do it in Dogg-town! And we're going to do it, "ZUMLITO'S WAY! "Keep reading!

See CalPERS Part 1. Part 2 on Sunday.


AND GOOD NEWS: I think this blog (LA Daily Blog) just had it's biggest day of readership EVER, including the most NEW readers. Here are the Feedburner stats for yesterday:

Saturday, May 2, 2009

• 1,292 views
• 451 clicks

I saw all my blog posts going to the top of BNN, so I had a feeling, but this looks like a lot more traffic than I am used to. Maybe the radio station program directors should try and figure out why?

I can keep this up all day and all night, now that I have a wi-fi computer that works just enough of the time. (The screen doesn't work all the time.) But, seriously, NOT without A HELL OF A LOT MORE support from the community. PayPal it if you got it.

But THIS part is FREE...

Subscribe to LA Daily Blog.com

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

Subscribe in a reader

LADailyBlog.com

SacBee: Political Circles Are Buzzing That More Candidates May Drop Out Of Assembly Race For Nunez' Seat (Villariagosa's Cousin Getting The Push)

Wonder if the comment -- "Political circles are buzzing that Lara, too, was dropping out" -- was based on LA Daily Blog's story? (Someone emailed me this story with the comment highlighted making note that they felt so.)

From SacBee

Field thins for Núñez Assembly seat

What was billed as a three-way surrogate struggle for the Assembly between Latino political powerhouses has thinned to two candidates, as a top aide to Sen. Gil Cedillo is dropping out of the race.

That leaves John Perez, the cousin of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, and Ricardo Lara, the district director for Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez as the remaining politically connected candidates for the Assembly seat, which Núñez must vacate this year due to term limits.

Arturo Chavez, the district director for Cedillo, said in an interview that he was withdrawing because “we don’t need that kind of dissension within the community.”

“There’s a lot of folks involved in this particular race, a lot of family and friends and it would have been pretty divisive,” said Chavez..

Political circles are buzzing that Lara, too, was dropping out.

But Núñez, speaking after an education press conference on Wednesday morning, denied that, saying, “Huh? He hasn’t left anything."

Neither Lara nor Sanchez has responded to phone calls or e-mails (since being contacted).

The speaker said the key to the race would be the endorsement of the powerful Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, to which both he and Villaraigosa are closely allied.

“We’re friends and at the end of the day we’d like to be together, if we could,” said Núñez of himself, Cedillo and Villaraigosa. “We’re going to sit with everybody after the labor fed endorsement and see who gets that endorsement. I think the person who gets that endorsement probably has best shot at winning and I think we need to figure out where you go from there. “

Perez is a former member of the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency, which he recently left to launch his Assembly bid. His is also Villaraigosa’s first cousin.

Latino leaders in Los Angeles have tried to avoid open political warfare between factions before, often with benefits down the line for those who put their ambitions temporarily on hold. [But you can't trust Villaraigosa like you used to.)

In early 2007, three Latinos were eying a seat on the Los Angeles City Council, including newly elected Assemblyman Richard Alarcon, former Assemblywoman Cindy Montanez and Felipe Fuentes, who served as chief of staff to Sen. Alex Padilla when he served on the city council.

Ultimately, though, the field thinned to one, with only Alarcon remaining in the race in what amounted to a waltz into the council. Fuentes then ran for the Assembly seat Alarcon vacated. And Montanez received two plum appointments, a seat on the Los Angeles Planning Commission made by the mayor, and a seat on the Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board, made by the speaker. The latter job pays an annual $128,109 salary, according to the Sacramento Bee state workers’ database.

Full SacBee article (these were excerpts)

Previous story about Villaraigosa muscling out other candidates in favor of his cousin John Perez that may have caused the political buzz. (Sure hope not!)

ZumaTimes.com

Less Wages, More Taxes: Nunez Wants 6% Tax on Oil

UPDATE: It already died in Assembly, like Nuckelhead Nunez's political career and all the hopes and aspirations he carried with him.

What a great time to ask people to pay more for oil, when you are spending more money on wine, cheese and travel than P. Diddy! Tack on trash collection fees, bulky item fees, Prop S (cell phone tax), Gang Money Parcel Tax, and whatever else they have up their sleeve -- and who do you think you are fooling. People will no longer be able to afford to show up for work.

From Sacramento Bee (Cause local LA newspapers suck!)

Assembly Speaker Fabian "Knucklhead" Núñez has introduced a bill to divert some of the oil industry's profits to protect teachers from layoffs.

The disgraced, outgoing California Assembly Speaker is proposing levying a 6 percent tax on all oil produced within the state and imposing a 2 percent tax on windfall oil profits to protect teachers from layoffs.

Núñez, a Los Angeles Democrat with close ties to education unions, is proposing a two-pronged approach by levying a 6 percent tax on all oil produced within the state, and imposing a 2 percent tax on windfall oil profits.

Together, the taxes would generate an estimated $1.2 billion a year for a cash-strapped state that still faces an $8 billion deficit for the fiscal year starting in July. Under the speaker's bill, ABX 9, oil tax revenues would be dedicated for schoolteachers, who are facing potential layoffs under Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's across-the-board budget cuts.

The idea isn't new. Voters in 2006 rejected Proposition 87, which would have imposed a per-barrel tax of up to 6 percent of the value of oil produced in the state.

The bill, which requires a two-thirds vote, is expected to taken up by the Democratic-controlled Assembly this week, but was expected to fail. Assembly Republicans, who killed a governor-led effort to close a tax break for purchasers of yachts, recreational vehicles and planes, have vowed to oppose new taxes.

full artcile

Recent Stories on LA Daily Blog.com.

Shady Mayor's Cousin Is Running For Knucklehead Nunez's Assembly Seat

Shady Mayor's Cousin Perez

It's bad enough that Villar's sister is LA County Judge (appointed by Gov. Schwarznegger/wonder what that deal between Arnie & Antonio was like)...

Now, John Perez, cousin of shady Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa says that he is running for Fabian "Knucklehead" Nunez's Assembly seat for the June 3, 2008 election. He will run against Nucklehead's aide, Ricardo Lara and Gil Cedillo's District Director Arturo Chavez.

Perez was Villar's mayoral appointee for the past two years as board member of LA CRA, but stepped down this week and now blesses the community with the announcement that he wants to run for Assembly. Why not? The Mayor is your cousin. And although he doesn't want to piss off his cahoots partner Nunez with an endorsement of Perzez, since Nuckelhead is endorsing his assistant Ricardo Lara -- do you think Villar cares about pissing off an "out of power, disgraced politician like Fabian Nunez?" DOUBT IT!

The Mayor of Los Angeles not only has has his cousin on the board of CRA (and now Assembly candidate), but cut a deal with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to have his his sister, L.A. Mary Lou Villar appointed LA County Supervisor Judge. (Hope Antonio doesn't have any more relatives. The coffers can't take it!)

Here's a comment from an LA Blogger who isn't so sure about the political capital of the former rising superstar Gubernatorial hopeful:

Word around the city is Villaraigosa's disapproval rating is in the low 20's and even lower in the nation. No accomplishments in two years, told illegals to go against the gov't "you have rights", is against gang injunctions, supports illegal vendors, traffic worst in his administration then ever, more special interest in city hall after he said he would "clean it up." Has hired more deputy mayors, more staff, more city cars, has spent more money then any other mayor, city is in HUGE deficit crisis, gives money to corrupt gang intervention/prevention orgs. has taken money from LA Bridges for his campaigns, lied about Prop S, and the list goes on. NEVER WILL ANTONIO EVER BE RE-ELECTED.

LACityUpdate.com
zumadogg@gmail.com


And cast your vote for the LA Daily Blog Poll: Do You Want Mayor Villaraigosa To Be Re-Elected? Yes, re-elect...or No, change the batter. Poll on upper right hand side of this blog. No house parties, absentee ballot canvasing or bus caravans required!