Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison Doesn't Want To Hear About State Pension Abuses
When it comes to state pension wrongdoing, Ellison, as Legal Counsel and pension Board member, is conflicted.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison’s office website says, “We Want to Hear From You.”
Unless you have knowledge of state pension abuses, that is.
There’s plenty of reasons why Ellison would be reluctant to get involved in any investigations of potential state pension wrongdoing.
Documents recently provided by the Teacher Retirement Association of Minnesota in response to a public records request reveal his office participated in efforts to undermine a participant-funded forensic investigation of the state’s pensions before it began earlier this year.
Ellison may also be responsible for the pension’s withholding of certain other even more incriminating documents pursuant to the attorney client privilege, since the Attorney General is the fund’s legal counsel.
Adding to Ellison’s conflicts regarding pension matters, he is one of only four members on the Minnesota State Board of Investments board, responsible for overseeing the integrity of the system.
So, perhaps not surprisingly, when recently offered certain information about wrongdoing related to the state’s pensions, the Attorney General was…. less than responsive.
After leaving a voicemail for Deputy Attorney General Dana Mitchell requesting a meeting with the Attorney General, on July 10th I was informed via email that we had been scheduled for “a 5-minute meeting (on July 12) to better understand the agenda you wish to discuss with the Attorney General. If you prefer to put the agenda in writing, you may email me at dana.mitchell@ag.state.mn.us.”
I promptly responded via email: “I would like to speak with the AG about the integrity of the state pension financial statements and misrepresentations I have, as an expert, identified and reported to the SEC and FBI.”
On July 11, Attorney General Keith Ellison’s office simply responded:
“Meeting Canceled.”
Shocked, I immediately emailed back: “So, I'm unclear. The meeting has been canceled? Why? Please see attached Zip files regarding TRA pension public records request response.”
The final response (that same day) from the Attorney General’s office was:
“The purpose of the meeting was to better understand your request to meet with the Attorney General. Since you have communicated your purpose Dana felt there was no need to meet.”
No need to meet?
In summary, the Attorney General’ s office knew who I was and that I was conducting a forensic investigation of the state pensions. His office was aware of the concerns many state officials had about abuses the investigation might uncover. His office participated in efforts to undermine the investigation before it even began. Therefore, a request for a meeting with his office about potential state pension wrongdoing was clearly foreseeable.
Nevertheless, after receiving a long-anticipated request from a nationally-recognized pension expert (retained by nearly 3,000 Minnesota teachers to conduct an unprecedented investigation), for a meeting to discuss a matter involving the integrity of the $146 billion state pension system—a matter so serious as to be reported to the SEC and FBI—Ellison’s office somehow concluded once-and-for-all: There was “no need to meet.”
The Attorney General is the chief legal officer of the State of Minnesota. The Office provides legal representation to over 100 state agencies, boards, and commissions and represents the State of Minnesota in state and federal court and administrative hearings.
When it comes to pension matters, Ellison clearly needs a wake-up call.
It is obvious this AG does not want exposure to which I will put it as "many questionable" documents may come to light to which he would have to explain and of course he would rather things stay buried. Sounds like what the current in over her head Commerce Secretary, fraudmondo, oh excuse me, raimondo, with the approval of the GA did, creating a scam to grab pension money and hand it over to Wall Street...Her reward? political office as RI Governor and let us not forget the real culprit who educated her...Enron's John Arnold....
How it was planned out took creative thinking by Arnold, et al. She had some shrewd & smart out of state pals who took advantage in what some people allegedly call a conspiracy w/Arnold able to set up a scam for ERSRI, the pension system of retirees, to take a hit- an illegal one at that- breaking contract law but of course knowing the judges would support her she got away with it because they, too, were in on the scam. How these people sleep at night knowing what they did, is disgusting. Pension money from retirees for future retirement only to be raided by fraudmondo and her Wall Street Enron friends just shows you how low they could and did go...
Political party affiliation does not matter when it comes to public employee pension fund mismanagement, wheeling and dealing, possible fraud, pay to play call it what you want the result is the same lost of earned pension benefits. In my state of Rhode Island the current Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo while General Treasurer orchestrated so called pension reform which included eliminating the COLA for currently retired beneficiaries. This was unheard of and unlawful. Now the national media are promoting her relentlessly. They should do their job and dig a little deeper.