Feds: Pension exec moved $2B for coke, hookers, other bribes

NEW YORK (AP) — A former top official at the country's third-largest pension fund and two broker-dealers were charged Wednesday in what a federal prosecutor described as a classic bribery scheme that steered $2 billion in trades in exchange for drugs, prostitutes, vacations and U.S. Open tennis tickets.

Navnoor Kang, the ex-head of the $184 billion New York State Common Retirement Fund's fixed income trades, received more than $100,000 worth of bribes in the form of trips, gifts, luxury hotel stays and other payoffs from broker-dealers Deborah Kelley and Gregg Schonhorn, prosecutors said.

In that time, securities investigators found that the firms' fixed-income business surged, with one of them increasing its domestic bond transactions from zero at the end of fiscal year 2013 to $2.378 billion at the end of fiscal year 2016, making it one of the top broker dealers doing state pension fund business, according to the complaint.

Prosecutors said that in exchange, Kang received a $10,000 all-expenses-paid trip to Montreal, Canada; a ski trip to Park City, Utah; tickets to a Paul McCartney concert in New Orleans; a $17,420 Panerai wristwatch; dinners at upscale restaurants; nights out at strip clubs; prostitutes; and cocaine.