11.   Institutional investors like insurance companies and pension funds now control billions of dollars.

12.   Others are employed in merchant banks advising pension funds.

13.   Pension funds also can help California firms to break into more global Markets by forming partnerships.

14.   Pension funds have a fiduciary duty to their clients, not to the rest of the Market.

15.   Pension funds have been subject to close scrutiny and performance measurement.

16.   Pension funds hold stocks for millions of employees.

17.   Public pension funds have experimented with such investments and have sustained huge losses.

18.   The lawsuit would likely allege that Symington got the loan because he deliberately misled the pension funds about his financial condition.

19.   The pension fund plans to cut in half the number of outside managers, Mr Burnham added.