Siedle: St. Joseph’s Pension Fund Bankruptcy Shows RI Needs AG Who Knows Pensions
Sunday, August 20, 2017
As the collapse of the St. Joseph's pension fund (which was approved by current Rhode Island Attorney General Kilmartin) illustrates, any candidate for the position must have a knowledge of pensions -- and be prepared to act.
Moreover, Rhode Island needs an Attorney General who is willing to investigate the largest financial crime in the history of the state: a reckless gamble of over $1 billion in state pension assets to further the political fortunes of the then-Treasurer, now Governor, and her Wall Street backers. In its first five years, this roll-of-the-dice has already resulted in approximately $500 million in hedge fund losses alone.
When politicians who oversee state pension assets blithely ignore the dire warnings of credible experts (including legendary investor Warren Buffett) and undermine the retirement security of state workers by causing massive losses, they should be held accountable by taxpayers for their intentional wrongdoing.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTRhode Island’s costly pension train wreck was foreseeable, indeed foreseen. Don’t think for a minute the damage to date was unavoidable or that the losses are behind us. If the best interests of state workers and taxpayers had been paramount, pension assets would never have been put at extreme risk and the state would be far richer than it is today.
To restore the public trust, as well as potentially recover ill-gotten gains, taxpayers should demand a relentless investigation into the wreckage at the pension.
Whether a Republican, Democrat, Green Party or Independent, the new Attorney General as the state’s top legal official must have the skills and be prepared to fight corruption at the highest levels involving billions of pension dollars.
Edward Siedle is a former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission lawyer who currently writes for Forbes, and is currently in line to receive the biggest whistleblower award in SEC history.
Related Slideshow: RI Public Pension Reform: Wall Street’s License To Steal
See the key findings from Forbes' columnist Edward Siedle, who unveiled his investigative report into the RI pension system, "License to Steal," in October 2013.
"The Employee Retirement System of Rhode Island has secretly agreed to permit hedge fund managers to keep the state pension in the dark regarding how its assets are being invested; to grant mystery hedge fund investors a license to steal, or profit at its expense using inside information; and to engage in potentially illegal nondisclosure practices," said Siedle.
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