Court Orders U. of California to Reveal Endowment Investment Returns
October 26, 2012 | Read Time: 1 minute
A California judge has ordered the University of California’s $10.65-billion endowment to reveal closely held information on its investments with a set of venture-capital funds, says Reuters.
The ruling, made public this week, comes in response to a freedom-of-information suit filed by Reuters earlier this year, seeking disclosure of the university’s returns on funds managed by the firms Sequoia Capital and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.
The news service argues that detailed information on how the endowment’s investments perform falls under the umbrella of the state Public Records Act. The university says it does not have the data because the two funds consider it confidential and provide the endowment only aggregate information on returns.
Judge Evelio Grillo wrote that the university failed to show in arguments last week that the investment information “does not relate to the conduct of the people’s business or that it does not have constructive possession,” or the right to control, the investment records. He delayed implemenation of the order until Jan. 16 to give the parties time to appeal if they wish.
