Saturday, February 27, 2016

Daley Nephew And Obama's Former Law Partner Pal Lost $68 Million In Chicago Pension Fund Investments

Robert Vanecko (left) and Allison Davis (right) (Sun-Times Photo)
A Chicago real estate firm established by the nephew of former Mayor Richard Daley, Robert Vanecko, and Allison Davis, the managing partner of the law firm where Barack Obama once worked, squandered $68 million in pension funds they were given to invest on behalf of Chicago teachers, cops, city employees and transit workers according to a Chicago Sun-Times watchdog report. The five public pension funds haven't made a dime from the money they invested with DV Urban Realty Partners, but the firm managed to collect $9 million in management fees from the pension systems despite their failed investments.

Don't laugh, but DV Urban Realty Partners received its pro rata share of pension investments based on it being a minority-owned business enterprise. "Since Davis is African-American, DV Urban qualified as a minority-owned business, helping the pension funds meet their diversity goals," the Sun-Times reported. He may not look like it in the photo above, but Davis apparently claims he's African-American. The pair of novice real estate investors purchased risky real estate properties, primarily in neglected neighborhoods. Most of the eight real estate deals in which they invested pension funds had gone belly-up by the time their contract expired in December, 2015. The pair would have gotten more pension money to invest had pension officials not got a court order blocking them from receiving further funds.

Vanecko tells the Sun-Times he bailed out of DV Urban Realty Partners after federal investigators subpoenaed all of the firm's records in 2009. David and Vanecko are being sued for $700,000 they borrowed from New City Bank to invest in the firm. The pair was supposed to invest $7 million of their own money in the firm when they were awarded pension fund investments, but they later got that amount reduced to $3.5 million. Former Mayor Daley denies he had any part in lining up investments from the pension funds for his nephew and Davis, and it's unclear whatever became of the investigation federal law enforcement conducted of the firm's activities several years ago. Obviously the Obama Justice Department took care of his old Chicago political cronies.

One of the crimes prosecuted against former Gov. Rod Blagojevich involved trading state pension fund investments for campaign contributions. It's no secret that Barack Obama played a key role as a state senator, working with his close pal Tony Rezko, in stacking the state pension boards with political appointees who would award  pension fund investments to their political cronies who contributed money to Obama's and other Democratic Party candidates campaigns. Although the evidence uncovered by the Chicago U.S. Attorney's Office clearly proved that Obama was engaged in worse criminal activity than Gov. Blagojevich, including taking cash bribes from Rezko, federal prosecutors gave him a complete pass for his crimes so America could have its first black president, or at least bi-racial president. Obama's former law partner boss, Allison Davis, knows where all of the bodies are buried, literally.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Shades of the Dan Quayle run private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management unloading junk bonds on the Indiana teacher and state police retirement funds. Holding 80.1% of Chrysler debt, and few buyers for a stake in a company quickly devolving into bankruptcy, Cerberus found a willing buyer in a fiduciary negligent and politically motivated State Treasurer, Richard Mourdock. Eventually, the pension funds received $0.29 cents on the dollar while Mourdock put on his Tea Party hat and spent another $2 million on lawyer fees pressing for a Chrysler liquidation that would have produced a lesser return and at a cost of tens of thousands of Hoosier jobs. While $8.1 million was lost, there is still a bit of irony in that this portion of the Cerberus distribution was handled by Reams Ass(et) management of Columbus, IN.

Pete Boggs said...

Maybe they can prop up, er buy securities to fund Indy's Crass Transit Red Lie or the Heir Pork Soccer Stadi-dumb...

Gary R. Welsh said...

Quayle appears to be a token gentile at Cerberus. They certainly didn't bring him aboard because he had any knowledge of investment banking. Who names their business after the mythological 3-headed dog who guarded the gates to hell anyway? Cerberus likely gets a lot of the CIA's laundered drug money, as well as money the Israeli Mossad sends its way. The CIA connection is the only reason George H.W. Bush named the idiot senator from Indiana as his running mate. Hoosiers are oblivious to how much CIA dirty money there is in Indiana's economy. A good chunk of the money that finances statewide and congressional campaigns in Indiana is derived from business owners who operate CIA front companies. Quayle's closeted son, Benjamin, who got booted out of Congress because he went skinny-dipping in the Sea of Galilee on a trip to Israel financed by a Mossad front group, is now partners in a lobbying firm with Democratic lobbyist Bill Moreau's step-son, Rashid Halloway, who formerly worked for Evansville's Steve Chancellor, one of the biggest CIA operators in the state of Indiana. And people wonder why we're all made as hell and are rebelling against the Republican and Democratic Party establishment.

Anonymous said...

So, we have token Gentiles now perhaps due to the birth dearth of a certain group of people? None the less, those people have the gonads of Senator Herschman and Speaker Bosma firmly in hand. While honest folks believe that Indiana Pension dollars ought to be prudently invested a recent bill out of Senate committee seems to direct our Indiana Pension Funds to dis invest in any company that dis invests in Israel. Didn't read all about that in Gannett? It seems clear that so doing robs the Pension Plans of income or at least has that tendency. On whose Sasso should legislators be doing the work(again) of a small group of unelected and unaccountable mystery characters. 98% of Indiana would prefer dis investing in Salesfarce, Cummins, Lilly, and other utterly amoral corporations who sided with a different 2%.
No doubt we won't see any of the details from Gannett for reasons well known to readers of this blog. And, if I've erred in any detail above please feel free to correct me. Not to overly pick on the two elected sorts pointed out above, but the Committee vote passing the crap out did not have any dissenters and thus, no one looking out for the common good or the public interest.

Anonymous said...

For the media peeps who come here to steal ideas for stories SB 1378 is what your crummy editors should have been pointing you to. If you find your gonads please do credit Advance Indiana by name.

LamLawIndy said...

Excellent find, Gary! Stories like these point to the fact that all govt employee pensions should be self-managed IRA plans. There is too much ignorance combined with greed and cronyism -- & maybe even outright malfeasance -- extant when there is a huge pot of money for politicians to play with.