Alfred J R Villalobos

Reno police say they are investigating the apparent suicide of Nevada businessman Alfred Villalobos, who was facing decades in prison if found guilty in a pending bribery case that rocked the California public workers’ pension system. Villalobos, 71, was accused of bribing the chief executive of the California Public Employees Retirement System in order to steer investments to his clients’ private equity firms. Villalobos, a former CalPERS board member, was scheduled to stand trial Feb. 23 in U.S. District Court in San Francisco. Villalobos, a former deputy mayor of Los Angeles and Lake Tahoe businessman, pleaded not guilty to the bribery charges.