FRiends of Milken..
The dairy cows at Lompoc miss his tender caressing little boney fingers.. He was part of the Moo-Lah crowd at Club Fed.. not just anyone gets to milk the cows, yaknow. ;-)
Posted on 07/23/2011 6:16:12 AM PDT by DeaconBenjamin
Wounded by the CalPERS bribery scandal and other problems, a New Jersey pharmaceutical-benefits company is being sold.
Medco Health Solutions Inc., one of the giants of the drug-benefit industry, on Thursday agreed to a $29.1 billion takeover by rival Express Scripts Inc.
Such a deal would have been unthinkable a few months ago, when Medco was flying high. But the New Jersey company ran into a series of problems that began with its entanglement in the CalPERS bribery case.
"This year has been a head-spinner for this (Medco) management team, starting out with the CalPERS issues," said investment analyst Arthur Henderson.
CalPERS said in March that the Securities and Exchange Commission and the California attorney general's office were investigating Medco's relationship with Alfred Villalobos – the man accused by state officials in a lawsuit of bribing fund executives.
According to a CalPERS investigator, Medco paid Villalobos more than $4 million in 2004 to help win a $500 million-a-year drug-benefits contract with the pension fund.
Medco acknowledged hiring Villalobos but said he was brought aboard to help resolve an audit of the company's previous work for CalPERS.
Either way, the disclosure was damaging to Medco and its chief executive, David Snow, who had met with Villalobos and several CalPERS officials at Villalobos' Lake Tahoe mansion.
In mid-March, CalPERS severed ties with Medco, halting talks on a deal to renew the big drug contract, which runs through December.
Even bigger customers dumped Medco following CalPERS' decision. In late May, the firm lost a $3 billion contract to supply drugs to federal employees. On Thursday, Medco confirmed weeks of speculation that it was losing another major client, UnitedHealth Group Inc.
Given the business it was losing, selling the company "clearly was a defensive move and probably the right move," Henderson said.
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
Now I know who lives in all those multi-million dollar mansions on the shores of Lake Tahoe... CalPers Criminals!!!
I’ve always wondered about Medco.
There were generic meds that were sold cheaper at retail in WalMart than my employer was paying for them from Medco.
CalPERS - tne new name for organized crime.
I think we’ll be buying ours from Sam’s Club as it’s a little less crowded with about the same co-pay as Express Scripts 90 day mail order.
EXCERPT Circa 2006 Bill Clinton, corporate reformer, signed on as a senior adviser (and "active adviser," according to a company press release) to the Yucaipa Corporate Initiatives Fund and the Yucaipa American Fund.
Both get all their cash from pension funds from public-school teachers and government workers in California and New York state. CALPERS, the huge California public-employee retirement fund, has agreed to commit $500 million to Yucaipa, and the California State Teachers Retirement System (CALSTRS) another $150 million. Millions more are to come from the New York State Common Retirement Fund.
Clinton's job, when he joined Yucaipa in April 2002, wasn't just to help make the rich richer: These were to be "investment funds that specialize in lower-income urban and rural communities," as The New York Times reported. Yucaipa managing partner Carlton Jenkins told Black Enterprise magazine that the funds were seeking out "urban-based minority or female-owned businesses."
And Clinton's role in the fund, Yucaipa head Ron Burkle made clear, would not be passive. "He's invaluable," said Burkle, explaining that Clinton would help raise money and offer investment advice to the funds. But a venture that was supposed to help minority businesses and secure the future of pensioners in two of America's biggest states seems to have done anything but.
The Yucaipa Corporate Initiatives Fund has already poured millions into Al Gore's new cable channel, Current Television. Gore's venture is headquartered in a tony neighborhood of San Francisco, which certainly doesn't seem to fit the definition of a "lower-income urban" community. Nor is it minority-owned — indeed, all the major investors are white males. (Indeed, by a who's who of major Democratic Party money people — including Joel Hyatt, former Democratic National Committee finance chairman, Rob Glaser of Realnetworks and Bill Joy of Sun Microsystems.)
SOURCE http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=21092
The LA Times breaks some major news: In a scathing report, a former chief executive of the California public employee pension fund (CALPERS) was accused of pressuring subordinates to invest billions of dollars of pension money with politically connected firms.
A 17-month investigation also found that Federico Buenrostro Jr. — along with former pension fund board members Charles Valdes and Kurato Shimada — strong-armed a benefits firm to pay more than $4 million in fees to consultant Alfred J.R. Villalobos, who later hired Buenrostro.
The report, prepared for the California Public Employees' Retirement System (CALPERS) by Washington law firm Steptoe & Johnson, comes amid widening attacks on public employee pension funds in California, Wisconsin, Iowa and other states for providing lavish benefits that cash-strapped governments can no longer afford.
The findings of insider dealings at CalPERS could provide fresh ammunition to Republican lawmakers here who want Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown to convert traditional pensions with guaranteed payments for life into 401(k)-type plans that rely heavily on employees' own contributions.(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
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Federico Buenrostro Jr., CEO of CalPERS from 2000 to 2008, accepted tens of thousands in gifts from Alfred R. Villalobos. Villalobos’ company Arvco Capital Research got more than $47 million in commissions for selling $4.8 billion in securities to CalPERS from 2005 to 2009.The California Public Employees’ Retirement System’s outside money-managers paid $180 million over the past decade to middlemen they hired to win business from the largest U.S. public pension, according to a report examining the use of so-called placement agents.
Villalobos represented New York private-equity firm Apollo Global Management and New Jersey-based Medco Health Solutions Inc. (MHS), the largest U.S. prescription-benefits manager. The report said the middleman exercised undue influence over Buenrostro and hosted former board members at his Lake Tahoe retreat, after which the board members voted in favor of Medco’s $26 million contract to manage pharmaceutical benefits for more than 300,000 members of Calpers’ preferred- provider organization health plan.
The report said Villalobos, who had no experience in pharmaceutical-benefits contracts, was retained as a consultant by Medco for $4 million after company CEO David Snow and Buenrostro were hosted at Villalobos’ Lake Tahoe home in May 2004.Villalobos later played host to Snow and three Calpers board members — Charles Valdes, Kurato Shimada and Robert Carlson — in September 2004, according to the report.
As members of a Calpers committee, Valdes and Carlson later voted to award the contract to Medco, while Shimada injected himself into discussions on the contract although he didn’t sit on the committee, the report said.
SOURCE http://tinyurl.com/4dbbwlg
Having been under both I can assure that Express Scripts is hands above Medco in quality of service. My wife and I jumped for joy when we heard of the purchase.
Express Scripts buys Medco: just more ways to screw the retired over 65 Military out of their promised health care. ES is a Witch to deal with as is, once it becomes the single provider it will be even worse. They have already cut Walgreen’s out as a provider, buy offering half pennies on the $1 reimbursement contracts. Other big chains will follow suit.
And with so many Military bases doing away with retired care or closing hospitals this is BAD! Add it to Medicare and it is even worse for the retired over 65 Military.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Express-Scripts-buying-Medco-apf-2744067741.html?x=0
I have had Medco for several years and for the most fairly happy with them. The problem I have and it isn’t their fault, is under Part D they charge the full list price but that is the law. I get my generics at WalMart and my expensive ones at Medco.
Dang, SW. You got me all excited. When you said Tahoe and CalPERS in the same breath, I thought for sure they had finally succeeded in putting the noose around the Milken alumni infesting the shores of Tahoe. Maybe some day...
Which got me all excited!!! (smirk)
I just had to say something stupid, cause I don't know about the Milken alumni. Are they like the Madeoff alumni???
FRiends of Milken..
The dairy cows at Lompoc miss his tender caressing little boney fingers.. He was part of the Moo-Lah crowd at Club Fed.. not just anyone gets to milk the cows, yaknow. ;-)
LAT - ‘Apollo’
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/mar/26/business/la-fi-calpers-apollo-20110326
Apollo moves past CalPERS woes
The private equity firm portrays itself as a victim in the public pension fund scandal.
March 26, 2011|By Stuart Pfeifer and Nathaniel Popper, Los Angeles Times
It’s the name behind some of the most recognized brands around, including Carl’s Jr. restaurants, Norwegian Cruise Lines and Smart & Final warehouse stores.
It’s also the name that came up, again and again, in a recent independent report about corruption inside the nation’s largest public pension system.
Apollo Global Management, a New York private equity investment firm, was not accused of wrongdoing in its dealings with the California Public Employees’ Retirement System. But the report detailed how Apollo had paid tens of millions of dollars to a former CalPERS board member who helped it land billions of dollars of investments from the massive pension fund.
The former board member, Alfred J.R. Villalobos, plied CalPERS staff with gifts, luxury travel, a job offer and a Lake Tahoe condominium to persuade them to invest in firms he represented, including Apollo, the report said.
In July 2007, CalPERS put up $600 million to buy about 9% of the non-voting shares of Apollo, which operates a West Coast office in Los Angeles. Afterward, Apollo paid Villalobos $13 million in fees for helping secure the deal, according to the report commissioned by CalPERS.
...
I don't know about the Madoff alumni, so I can't compare. I can't remember exactly how many of the Milken alumni hang out in Tahoe. IIRC, it was quite a few. Kinda reminds you of the old RatPack days in the Tahoe casinos. I remember Leon Black, head of Apollo Management which owns Heavenly and Northstar ski resorts (through ownership of Vail Resorts) is active in the area. His firm handles billions of CalPERS funds, many of which have gone up in smoke. He also was involved with the old Executive Life scam. The SEC has tried to nail him for years but he keeps slithering away. Aha! It turns out this Villalobos character (in the posted article above) used to be on the board of Apollo -- and Apollo is up to their neck in this one. Why am I not surprised?
I guess you wouldn't be surprised if I told ya Schwarzenegger is a limited partner in some of Apollo's Investment Funds, huh?
And it looks like Parsky is a bit more than tainted by all of this.
I obviously haven't been payin' attention lately!
I guess I could have saved myself some time if I had seen your post before I posted mine.
So, how does Burkle fit into this? LOL.
The report detailed how Apollo Global Management, a New York private equity investment firm, had paid tens of millions of dollars to a former CalPERS board member who helped it land billions of dollars of investments from the massive pension fund.
The former board member, Alfred J.R. Villalobos, plied CalPERS staff with gifts, luxury travel, a job offer and a Lake Tahoe condominium to persuade them to invest in firms he represented, including Apollo, the report said.
In July 2007, CalPERS put up $600 million to buy about 9% of the non-voting shares of Apollo, which operates a West Coast office in Los Angeles. Afterward, Apollo paid Villalobos $13 million in fees for helping secure the deal, according to the report commissioned by CalPERS.
Medco is a nightmare. My wife needs about a three week lead time from them to get her meds.
On April 23, investors of Hawk Opportunity Fund sued Burkle’s private-equity company, Yucaipa Companies, in Atlanta federal court, charging Yucaipa and IBT leaders with racketeering in Yucaipa’s takeover of Allied Holdings, Inc., North America’s largest hauler. The plaintiff is demanding $200 million in damages, a figure that could triple under RICO statutes. Yucaipa thinks the case is groundless. “We think that this suit s totally without merit,” said company lawyer Robert Klyman. A Teamsters spokesperson likewise dismissed the suit as having no basis. But the surrounding facts notwithstanding provide a window to the ways in which Hillary Clinton will fund her bid to become the next U.S. President.
SOURCE http://www.nlpc.org/view.asp?action=viewArticle&aid=2019
Ron Burkle: Hiring Bill was 'dumb' Billionaire Ron Burkle says hiring former President Bill Clinton as a consultant at his investment firm Yucaipa Cos. was "the dumbest thing I ever did" after media scrutinity of their friendship damaged his reputation and made him a frequent boldfaced name in gossip columns. Burkle sounds off on his soured relationship with Clinton in a candid interview with Michael Gross for his new book, "Unreal Estate: Money, Ambition and the Lust for Land in Los Angeles," coming in November from Broadway Books. It profiles owners of 16 estates, including Burkle and his palatial LA home Greenacres. Gross writes that Clinton stayed there about 80 times and flew on Burkle's private planes, but their relationship became raw meat for vulturous media once Clinton was hired as an adviser to Yucaipa in 2002. "We were friends the whole time he was in the White House," Burkle told Gross. "He spent a lot of nights in LA and, frankly I never read about it. I went to Camp David and I went to the White House.
Nobody was really paying attention. So I frankly, didn't give a lot of thought to what the downside was. Maybe I should have." Vanity Fair ran a scathing profile of Clinton in 2008, which mentioned that Burkle's jets were nicknamed "Ron Air" and "Air [Bleep] One." Burkle told Gross, "I didn't create Clinton's reputation for issues with women, but I became part of it." A year after Clinton left Yucaipa, reporters were still picking over their relationship, and Burkle told Gross that "hiring Clinton was in some ways the dumbest thing I ever did."
Burkle's rep said, "I haven't read Mr. Gross' book but it sounds like some of the comments sent to you regarding Mr. Burkle and Mr. Clinton were taken out of context." A source familiar with the men's relationship said, "Ron Burkle's lifestyle didn't change before or after working with Bill Clinton, and they have since severed their working relationship." A rep for Clinton declined to comment.
SOURCE http://www.nypost.com/p/pagesix/ron_hiring_bill_was_dumb_CZpfjTUC8alm5G1ZGuksJP#ixzz1RbDAajSK
Thank you.
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