Christopher Witkowsky

The firm’s hired legal gun, David Boies, once represented US vice president Al Gore in the Florida voting dispute during the 2000 presidential election.

Bids that came in for the private equity stakes were not ‘on par with the value of the assets’, the endowment’s CEO John Powers told PEO in an interview.

Joseph Dear, CalPERS chief investment officer, said private equity investments will ‘fuel our portfolio in future years’.

The oil and gas exploration platform, created in 2005 by a consortium including Carlyle, Goldman and First Reserve, hopes to fund its exploration activities despite having ‘no proved reserves’.

Wesley Edens, the firm’s co-chairman, said Fortress portfolio company Nationstar, a mortgage servicer, was a candidate for a possible IPO.

The commitment comes as the $200bn pension is reviewing its private equity programme, including analysing fees paid by its fund managers to placement agents.

Riverstone has already paid $30m to settle its case in the ongoing New York Common pay-to-play investigation.

PCG Asset Management would run the programme, which would target original commitments of between $5m and $20m.

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said Elliott Broidy paid nearly $1m in gifts to NY Common officials, including more than $90,000 to pay living expenses of one official's girlfriend.

The separate account will target investments in funds with commitments of up to $1bn that focus on international markets.