A Pension Official Blows The Whistle
Pennsylvania State Sen. Katie Muth. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
A new lawsuit in Pennsylvania could shed light on how retirement funds are siphoning employee’s earnings to Wall Street firms.
A new era in the decade-long battle by retirees and whistleblowers to halt massive transfers of wealth out of retirement funds and into Wall Street firms could be at hand, thanks to the case of Katie Muth.
Muth, a Democratic Pennsylvania state senator, is one of 15 trustees who oversees Pennsylvania’s largest public pension fund, the Pennsylvania Public School Employees’ Retirement System. Not long after her February 2021 appointment to the board, Muth began questioning the fund’s investments in areas like private equity, hedge funds, and real estate.
Over the past 30 years, public pension funds have moved $1.4 trillion of retiree savings into such high-risk, high-fee “alternative investments,” enriching finance industry moguls like Stephen Schwarzman of the Blackstone Group and Robert Mercer of Renaissance Technologies while often shortchanging retired public employees and teachers.
But Muth says that when she asked the fund’s investment staff for more information about its high-risk investments, she was rebuffed — so in June 2021, she sued the fund for basic information about its investments.
“[I asked them to] give me a comprehensive list of all alternatives and traditionals, and find if we have private equity in ambulances and hospitals,” Muth told The Lever. “Their response was, ‘We have over 495 portfolios it would be impossible to track what’s in it.’ That’s BS… That’s why I’m suing: I don’t know what the money is spent on. I have an obligation as a fiduciary to make informed decisions.”
The emergence of internal board member complaints like Muth’s could signal a sea change in the fight to stop Wall Street from preying on public pensions, said Ted Siedle, a former attorney for the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and pension whistleblower.
“It’s long been known these board members lack investment expertise, but increasingly they are going the whistleblower route,” said Siedle. “This is a new development. Every public pension I’ve investigated lies about their fees and lies about their performance. But now, the board members are coming forward and are being stonewalled and threatened.”