New York City’s largest pension fund voted against taking a lead role to recover millions of dollars from Jon Corzine’s bankrupt MF Global firm because of conflicts involving the office of Comptroller John Liu (left), The Post has learned.
Citing Liu’s hiring of two top MF Global officers, the pension board of the NYC Employees Retirement System overwhelmingly rejected a motion to become chief plaintiff in the MF Global securities-fraud class-action suit.
Larry Schloss, the deputy who oversees the investments of the city’s $120 billion pension fund for Liu, served on MF Global’s board of directors before going to work for the comptroller.
And Kevin Davis, MF Global’s CEO for a decade before Corzine took over, was a key official in the comptroller’s Bureau of Asset Management before stepping down.
“We can’t be a lead plaintiff against MF Global when their top employees now work for us and will be grilled as witnesses,” said one insider familiar with the deliberations.
The city’s five pension funds, which lost as much as $9.6 million when MF Global went bust, will automatically be a plaintiff in the case.