South Carolina’s Pension Push Into High-Octane Investments

Gary Hallgren

MANY mornings, the yellow Lamborghini would swing into view, sweep past tree-softened streets with a low, smooth rumble and throttle down outside an office near the State House downtown.

Behind the wheel was a financier named Robert L. Borden. Around Columbia, a city decidedly more Ford than Lamborghini, his exotic supercar gave him the air of a Wall Street hotshot. In truth, Mr. Borden was a civil servant — a very highly paid one. Until recently, he was the investment chief of South Carolina’s giant public pension system. 

What is sure is that while he was running things, South Carolina ended up paying hundreds of millions of dollars in fees — $344 million last year alone — to a Who’s Who of hedge fund managers and private equity deal makers. In return, it got a trove of investments that haven’t really provided the bang that people here had hoped for. Today, the pension fund has a higher share riding on private-equity and hedge-fund plays — called “alternative investments” in some circles — than almost any other state’s: $13 billion, or more than half its total. 

What is also certain is that Mr. Borden is long gone. Mr. Borden, who resigned last December to join a private investment firm, says he is proud of what he accomplished in his nearly six years at the helm of the $24.5 billion South Carolina Retirement Systems.

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Former Auburn players Ed Christian, Ladarious Phillips dead, lineman Eric Mack hospitalized after shootings

Former Auburn football players Ed Christian, left, and Ladarious Phillips.

AUBURN, Alabama -- Former Auburn football players Ed Christian and Ladarious Phillips were shot to death and current player Eric Mack has a gunshot wound and is in the hospital following a Saturday night shooting at an apartment complex near the campus, according to two people familiar with the incident.

Two other people, perhaps more, may have been shot.

A source said Mack "will be all right."

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