Bets on expensive but poorly performing hedge funds have cost pensioners in New York $3.8 billion in the last eight years, according to a report published by the state's financial regulator on Monday, Reuters reported. “Hedge fund managers continue to reap hundreds of millions of dollars in fees, regardless of their performance, which is a rip-off at the expense of pensioners,” Maria Vullo, superintendent of the New York State Department of Financial Services, said in a statement. The New York State Common Retirement Fund, which oversees $178 billion in assets and is the third-largest U.S. pension fund, paid $1 billion in fees to hedge fund managers over the last eight years, the regulator said in the report. The funds underperformed to the tune of $2.8 billion, said the regulator, which oversees banks and insurance companies in the state.
