Tag: Edward Siedle

Chicago Police Pension Forensic Audit Ends With Disturbing Findings

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.forbes.com/sites/edwardsiedle/2021/09/03/chicago-police-pension-forensic-audit-ends-with-disturbing-findings/

Excerpt:

This week, the Chicago Police Department Pension Board Accountability Group—comprised of retired and active Chicago police officers and their dependents— released the scathing findings of a forensic audit of the Chicago Policemen’s Annuity and Benefit Fund. The Group hired an outside expert to conduct the forensic audit after the pension refused their request to do so on its own.

In a September 2, 2021 statement on the police pension’s website it was stated:

“Recently, certain annuitants, without asserting any wrongdoing on the part of the Fund, any Fund employee, or any Board Trustee, past or current, and in fact repeatedly acknowledging no wrongdoing or fraudulent conduct has occurred, have demanded the Board contract with another entity to conduct a desired independent forensic audit. The purpose of a forensic audit is in substance to conduct an investigation as a means of discovering potential fraud, wrongdoing, or other financial crimes. Given that no legitimate cause for this type of audit exists, it is not a prudent use of Fund resources to engage with an additional auditor to perform a forensic audit.”

…..

According to the report, CPABF is one of the worst funded public pension plans in the U.S. today with a funding ratio at year-end of only 23%. That fact alone merits an independent investigation, in my opinion. And, by the way, forensic investigations of pensions are not necessarily focused upon “potential fraud, wrongdoing or financial crimes.”

Author(s): Edward Siedle

Publication Date: 3 September 2021

Publication Site: Forbes

Your State Pension Is Not Fully Protected Under Law

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.forbes.com/sites/edwardsiedle/2021/09/08/your-state-pension-is-not-fully-protected-under-law/

Excerpt:

State and local government pensions assure workers and retirees that they enjoy the same protections as the comprehensive federal law, ERISA provides to corporate participants. That’s simply not true. Don’t count on state law to protect your retirement security.

It has been said that the Law is a blunt instrument, incapable of dealing with all shades and circumstances, with little or no regard for individual situations.

…..

Even where the most comprehensive legal and regulatory framework exists and answers are crystal-clear, your pension is at risk because enforcement or policing of the law is lacking. I have taught U.S. Department of Labor pension investigators. As trained and committed as they are, they’re hopelessly out-gunned by the investment industry. Wall Street runs circles around regulators charged with enforcing pension laws.

However, the vast majority of pensions are not subject to any comprehensive law.   

For example, as hard as it is to believe, explain or justify, the approximately $4 trillion in America’s government pensions is not protected by any comprehensive federal or state law.

Author(s): Edward Siedle

Publication Date: 8 September 2021

Publication Site: Forbes

Forensic Investigation Of Chicago Police Pension Fund Underway

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.forbes.com/sites/edwardsiedle/2021/05/25/forensic-investigation-of-chicago-police-pension-fund-underway/?sh=6f9aac8c3ed9

Excerpt:

The Chicago Policemen’s Annuity and Benefit Fund (PABF) —commonly referred to as the Chicago Police Pension Fund—is one of the worst funded public pension plans in the United States today, with a funding ratio of only 23 percent.

A group of retired and disabled officers, along with widows, has long questioned the trustees and management of the struggling pension. Dissatisfied with the responses they received, the group formed the CPD Pension Board Accountability Group.

Funds were raised to commission an independent forensic audit of the pension and an expert in pensions was retained recently to conduct the review. As Forbes readers will recall, in my recent book, Who Stole My Pension?, I encourage pension stakeholders to band together to fund independent forensic investigations by pension experts of their own choosing—to get a second opinion as to whether the pension fiduciaries and Wall Street “helpers” they have hired to manage investments are doing a good job.

Author(s): Edward Siedle

Publication Date: 25 May 2021

Publication Site: Forbes

Alternative Investment Looting Is Destroying Pension Funds

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.forbes.com/sites/edwardsiedle/2021/05/21/alternative-investment-looting-is-destroying-pension-funds/?sh=1e71137979c1

Excerpt:

Forensic investigations in Rhode Island, North Carolina, Kentucky and Ohio reveal that gambling 30 percent or more on high-cost, high-risk, secretive alternative investments has exposed pensions to massively greater risks and reduced net returns. The time is ripe for legislators, regulators, and law enforcement to act to stop the looting.

A recent New York Times NYT -3% article revealed that putting more than half of the $62 billion Pennsylvania state teachers’ retirement fund’s assets into risky alternative investments hadn’t worked out well for the pension and had spurred an investigation by the FBI. The FBI is investigating reporting fraud—returns allegedly falsified to avoid increased worker contributions to the pension.

Law enforcement investigations into public pension funds that lie about their returns are long, long overdue.

Author(s): Edward Siedle

Publication Date: 21 May 2021

Publication Site: Forbes

Your Pension Board Thinks It’s Smarter Than Warren Buffett—It’s Not

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.forbes.com/sites/edwardsiedle/2021/05/01/your-pension-board-thinks-its-smarter-than-warren-buffett-its-not/?sh=b3fdc2611302

Excerpt:

Buffett has a consistent history of blasting Wall Street firms for charging high fees for actively managed investments and has recommended pensions invest in low-cost passively managed index funds.

You might think that underfunded pensions struggling to pay benefits would heed Buffett’s advice and seek to cut the fees they pay Wall Street.

Embrace austerity. Tighten their belts. Trim the fat. 

In fact, every forensic investigation I’ve ever undertaken has exposed that the nearer a pension is to insolvency, the higher the fees and the greater the risks the pension takes on.

Author(s): Ted Siedle

Publication Date: 1 May 2021

Publication Site: Forbes

Members of teacher pension fund planning lawsuit to force transparency

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://news.yahoo.com/members-teacher-pension-fund-planning-110300430.html?guccounter=1

Excerpt:

About 1,000 current and retired Ohio educators skeptical of the true financial shape of their $90 billion state pension fund are preparing to sue to force greater cooperation with a $75,000 self-funded investigation of its books.

The forensics audit, financed through money raised from members, is being undertaken by pension investment expert Ted Siedle — a former Securities Exchange Commission attorney, financial forensics investigator, and co-author of the book “Who Stole My Pension?”

The public records lawsuit will ask the Ohio Supreme Court to force the State Teachers Retirement System, serving some 500,000 active, inactive, and retired members, to release information that investment firms have claimed is proprietary or a trade secret.

Author(s): Jim Provance, The Blade, Toledo, Ohio

Publication Date: 3 May 2021

Publication Site: Yahoo News

New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer Loosening City Pension Private Equity Rules Will Help Him, Hurt Pensioners

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.forbes.com/sites/edwardsiedle/2021/02/24/new-york-city-comptroller-scott-stringer-loosening-city-pension-private-equity-rules-will-help-him-hurt-pensioners/?sh=6bdb3ceb2592

Excerpt:

What a remarkable coincidence that New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer is looking to loosen strict rules that govern private-equity firms managing the city’s pensions when the Democrat is running for mayor in this year’s election. Presumably, private equity firms who may earn hundreds of millions in fees if the pension restrictions are lifted will let him know just how grateful they are.

Author(s): Edward Siedle

Publication Date: 24 February 2021

Publication Site: Forbes

Private Equity Pays To Silence Investor-Whistleblowers Aware Of Fraud

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.forbes.com/sites/edwardsiedle/2021/02/28/private-equity-pays-to-silence-investor-whistleblowers-aware-of-fraud/?sh=45191ea71cee

Excerpt:

For fiduciaries overseeing other people’s money, private equity’s disparate treatment of investors, abusive industry practices and alarming lack of transparency should be deal-breakers. To the contrary, pensions in recent years have dramatically increased their allocations to private equity funds—either because they don’t understand the dangers lurking in the shadows or simply don’t care as long as above-market returns are promised (which will supposedly reduce severe pension underfunding).

….

Securities and pension regulators have paid little attention to the “side letter” agreements private equity funds enter into with investors granting preferential treatment. It’s no secret that these agreements exist—the practice of entering into them is disclosed in offering memoranda and is openly discussed throughout the industry. As a result of increasing institutional investor domination of private equity, and the regulation applicable to these investors, it is now standard practice in the industry for each investor to demand its own side letter. As a consequence, there has been a proliferation of the number of side letters being negotiated with investors, as well as the kinds of arrangements and provisions included in them.

Author(s): Edward Siedle

Publication Date: 28 February 2021

Publication Site: Forbes