Looks like the same county poohbahs who under-invested in their own fire safety over-invested in soon-to-be-worthless structured investment vehicles, basically a bundling of subprime mortgage debt that is about to go bust.
Twenty percent, or $460 million, of the county’s $2.3 billion Extended Fund is invested in so-called SIVs that may face credit-rating cuts, said Treasurer Chriss Street. In all of its funds, the county holds a total of $837 million of SIV debt, including $152 million in its $3.5 billion of money-market funds that isn’t under ratings review, said his spokesman, Keith Rodenhuis.
It’s what Atrios has taken to calling “Big Shitpile,” sold to municipal governments as low-risk but soon to be a de facto bailout for mortgage brokers – and crushing to these same municipal governments, who won’t be able to provide services out of them.
Plus, we have a top Republican activist about to turn himself in on pedophilia charges:
Jeffrey Ray Nielsen-the well-connected Orange County conservative activist who claimed the so-called liberal media, specifically the Weekly, was out to get him by publishing a series of exposés on his pedophile activities-is expected to finally admit tomorrow that he used two boys for sex since 1994, according to law-enforcement sources.
A legal representative for Nielsen, who has extensive personal ties to Congressman Dana Rohrabacher and Orange County Republican Party boss Scott Baugh, told prosecutors early last week that Nielsen would plead guilty to two felony counts: committing lewd acts on a child under 15 years old and committing lewd acts on a child under 14 years old.
He’s getting off easy, he’ll probably serve 3 years instead of the 30 years he faced if convicted of all the counts in current trials.
PLUS, Hank Asher, a top business associate to Rudy Giuliani, was named in the bribery investigation of Sheriff Michael Carona. He’s got the double-whammy, shady ties to America’s Mayor AND America’s Sheriff!
Asher, identified by the initials H.A. in Overt Act 59 of a federal grand jury indictment against Orange County sheriff Michael Carona, had handed the diamond-encrusted Cartier baubles to the wives of the sheriff and his deputy, and with that, assured himself a place in a federal indictment that was looming.
Asher is not charged with any crime in the indictment. But his expensive gifts are clearly part of the corruption investigation.
Someday somebody’s going to write a book about the dysfunctional conservative backwater that is the OC, and it’s not going to look anything like the TV show.