Xanadu: Fool’s Paradise For State Pension Fund

The New York State Common Retirement Fund has lost more than $120 million in an investment it made in 2006 in the development of what was originally called Xanadu, a 2-million-square-foot shopping mall in the New Jersey Meadowlands that has been completed for several years, but has yet to open, The Chief-Leader has learned.

The original $150-million investment is now carried on the books as having a $29-million value. It had been approved by State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli’s predecessor, Alan Hevesi, Mr. DiNapoli’s press office said. Mr. Hevesi was forced to resign from office more than a decade ago for using state employees to chauffeur his wife, and in 2010 pleaded guilty to steering millions of dollars in state pension funds to an investment firm that gave kickbacks to him and his key political adviser.