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September 12, 2006

ITU Ventures Gets Big Redemptions

The L.A. Times has been on this story for some time, but it heated up more today. ITU Ventures, an L.A.-based venture firm, has apparently had $120-million pulled from it by some prominent institutional investors. The story is somewhat complex, but it comes down to allegations of political campaign contributions tied to venture invesments.

The investors were troubled that the two partners, Chad Brownstein and Jonah Schnel, solicited political contributions from the fledgling firms they financed, and several obliged.

Start-ups in Colorado, New Mexico and California gave about $68,000 to California Controller Steve Westly, an influential member of the state's public pension board who was running for governor at the time.

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