An Indian-origin former portfolio manager Navnoor Kang has been charged at one of the largest pension funds in the US. He is among the three people charged in a bribery scam where billion dollar business was steered to broker-dealers in exchange for cash, luxury vacations, drugs and prostitutes.
He was arrested on Wednesday in Portland and will be presented before a US Magistrate Judge.
Navnoor Kang is the ex-director of fixed income and the head of the portfolio strategy at the New York State Common Retirement Fund (NYSCRF). He and Deborah Kelley, the managing director of institutional fixed income sales at a New York-based broker-dealer have been charged with participating in a "pay-for-play" bribery scam involving the NYSCRF.
An Indian-born naturalised American attorney and the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Preet Bharara said, “Kelley is expected to surrender to authorities in San Francisco.”
Bharara said Kang allegedly steered billions of dollars of business to broker-dealers who bribed him with luxury vacations, high-priced watches, cash and drugs.
"The hard-earned pension savings of New Yorkers should never serve as a vehicle for corrupt, personal enrichment. The intersection of public corruption and securities fraud appears to be a busy one, but it's one that we are committed to policing," he said.
Bharara also announced unsealing of charges against Gregg Schonhorn, a vice president of fixed income sales at a New York-based broker-dealer who pled guilty and admitted to his participation in the scheme.
The NYSCRF was a pension fund administered for the benefit of public employees of the State of New York and is the third largest pension fund in the US, holding approximately US$184 billion in assets in trust for a total of more than one million retirees and other beneficiaries.
