Pension Fraud: What Are the Candidates Going to Do About It?
Monday, October 11, 2010
Peter Kilmartin and Gina Raimondo, the Democratic candidates for Attorney General and General Treasurer, respectively, will team up to fight pension fraud if they are elected. The two candidates outlined a joint plan that included everything from new rules on dealing with investment firms to a 24-hour hotline for the public to report abuse.
“Pension abuse and fraudulent activities are an affront to overburdened taxpayers and to all those who served and retired honorably,” Kilmartin said. “As Attorney General, I look forward to working with the General Treasurer and others to aggressively lead the charge against pension abuses and use the powers of the office to prosecute those that violate the public trust.”
The two campaigns have released a joint plan for how they would combat the problem. Their plan includes the following elements:
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST1. Launching a pension fraud task force that would incorporate the U.S. Attorney, the Auditor General, local and state police, city and town solicitors, and municipal pension and personnel boards. The task force would serve as a forum to share information on suspicious pension activities and coordinate investigations. As part of these efforts, the Attorney General would aggressively prosecute perpetrators of pension fraud. The campaigns cited a GoLocalProv investigation that found 25 illegal pensions in Johnston as an example of the kind of fraud and abuse they hoped to crack down.
2. Establishing a higher pension fund investment code of conduct that will ensure the integrity of investment firms seeking to attract investment in public pension funds. The code will enforce "pay to play" regulations imposed by the Securities and Exchange Commission that prohibit investment firms and placement agents that make campaign contributions from receiving investment mandates from public pension funds. Kilmartin and Raimondo said they would make sure that all state and municipal pension boards followed the investment code of conduct.
3. A 24-hour inter-agency whistleblower hotline allowing Rhode Islanders to confidentially report suspicions of pension abuse. Citizens will also be able to report fraud through a Web site. “As the administration of many retirement systems across Rhode Island remains paper-based, with limited transparency, there are potentially more situations like that in Johnston across the state,” the candidates said.
“Recent events on Wall Street, pension fraud prosecutions in other states and recent allegations of wrongdoing in Rhode Island demonstrate that we must be vigilant and aggressive to ensure the integrity of our pension system, especially during these difficult economic times,” Raimondo said. “After all, every dollar saved in stopping pension abuse could be used for critical government services, which are currently being cut. I look forward to working with the Attorney General in leading the charge against pension fraud in Rhode Island, when elected.”
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