Calpers Says Middlemen Got $180 Million to Win Fund’s Business

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.

The report faults those money-managers for failing to properly oversee the use of middlemen to help private-equity and real-estate firms win contracts to investment money for the $228.2 billion fund.