More corruption revealed at TRS
Wednesday, Sep 8, 2021 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Last year…
The state pension system for Illinois teachers spent nearly $700,000 on lawyers to investigate two top officials at Teachers’ Retirement System, one who was fired in June and the other who resigned in August after being placed on administrative leave.
The figure comes from TRS’s response to a Freedom of Information Act request from Illinois Times, which asked for billing records, personnel records and a copy of reports outlining any allegations of wrongdoing by Richard Ingram, former TRS executive director who resigned in August, and Jana Bergschneider, the pension system’s chief financial officer, who was terminated by Ingram in July.
* Hannah Meisel today…
One year after the head of Illinois’ largest public employee pension fund resigned due to what the fund has only described at “performance issues,” a recently published report by the state’s chief ethics officer reveals the circumstances behind the departures of two more former high-ranking officials at the pension fund in 2020.
The former chief information officer at the Illinois’ Teachers’ Retirement System repeatedly directed contracts toward the company he founded and also lied about having severed ties with the company, according to a report published last month by Illinois Executive Inspector General Susan Haling. TRS manages the pensions of more than 427,000 current and retired teachers as well as pension beneficiaries.
The report centers on former CIO Jay Singh’s conflicts of interest, but also brings to light the firing of TRS’ former chief financial officer, Jana Bergschneider, who was fired last July as the investigation unfolded. Singh resigned in April of last year, two months after he was interviewed as part of an internal investigation into his conflicts of interest.
Singh began as the pension fund’s CIO in August 2019, but for 10 months before that, worked on a contract basis as a project manager for TRS’ Gemini Project, a custom software program built to administer a new defined contribution plan made available to teachers in a 2018 law.
While he was the contractual project manager on the Gemini Project, Singh steered three contract jobs to employees of Singh3 Consulting, the company he founded in 2015. According to the report, investigators found Singh put his thumb on the scale during the procurement process by electing not to review a submission for the work from a competing vendor and closely overseeing the scoring process for awarding the contract.
Go read the whole thing. The OEIG report is here. A memo to TRS members is here.
- Downstate - Wednesday, Sep 8, 21 @ 2:42 pm:
I love the TRS memo which states, “We owe it to you to give the full story.”
TRS letter says they waited to communicate with members until the OEIG report was completed. What they don’t say is the OEIG report was dated May 19, 2021. Apparently, the FOIA request from Illinois Times was what caused them to finally fess up to their members.
- A - Wednesday, Sep 8, 21 @ 2:48 pm:
Wow. Seems no one can keep their hands out of the TRS cookie jar. And I suppose teachers are to blame?
- Donnie Elgin - Wednesday, Sep 8, 21 @ 3:04 pm:
TRS has a rich history of corruption…
September 15, 2005 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Joseph Cari, an attorney for the Illinois Teachers’ Retirement System (TRS) and former finance chairman of the Democratic National Committee pleaded guilty to threatening to bar an investment company from doing business with the Illinois State Teachers Pension Fund unless it agreed to hire a consultant.
- Annonin' - Wednesday, Sep 8, 21 @ 3:20 pm:
Mr/MsDonnieElgin starts too late perhaps he forgets JimRyan college pal Stu Levine and his handiwork? This is a prince of an item…the TRA “probe” took a year, snagged $700K for the legal eagles (names?) and essentially sez someone was stealing BEFORE he was hired. Very sly. Seems to beat the Blagoofian record of stealing during the transition. Hat Tip to Ms. Meisel.
- Al - Wednesday, Sep 8, 21 @ 3:24 pm:
Ingram was in his position too long.
- Anyone Remember - Wednesday, Sep 8, 21 @ 3:28 pm:
Downstate. While the investigation may have been completed in May, it was published by the Executive Ethics Commission on August 17, 2021. And unless the law is changed, these reports cannot be mentioned / discussed until published by EEC.
- DuPage - Wednesday, Sep 8, 21 @ 3:30 pm:
Rauner had an employee who was also on the board. What was done about that. If I remember correctly, Rauner said his companies were so large, he didn’t recognize his own employee and nothing was done.
- Anonymous - Wednesday, Sep 8, 21 @ 3:52 pm:
Explain how bergschneider gets fired and then hired by the state comptroller office.
- Annonin' - Wednesday, Sep 8, 21 @ 4:02 pm:
Hmm. Reference to everyone’s hero Stu Levine was scrubbed. Too bad it was very witty.
Meanwhile it might be fun to better understand where GovJunk and his pals found Mr. Singh? Such an interesting time. THis was during rise of dontDoIt right?
- Back to the Future - Wednesday, Sep 8, 21 @ 4:12 pm:
Great reporting by Hannah Meisel. We need to deal with this kind systemic corruption in Statw government..
As usual no one takes responsibility for this.
The Board has 15 members. Teachers elect members (although I wonder what the teacher turnout is in these elections) and the Governor appoints 7 members ( TRS website says that the board has 2 vacancies).
Chicago taxpayers don’t employ any of these teachers, but we get to help fund the system and have to put up with these kinds of shenanigans.
Not surprised the Governor doesn’t take any responsibility because that is just how he operates, but how about the teacher members or organizations asking for some accountability or how about replacing all these Board Members.
- Nieva - Wednesday, Sep 8, 21 @ 4:42 pm:
Not sure if he committed a crime but 700k for an investigation has to be criminal..
- Davos - Wednesday, Sep 8, 21 @ 4:57 pm:
= Explain how bergschneider gets fired and then hired by the state comptroller office. =
She’s actually currently working for the State Appellate Defender
- Sue - Wednesday, Sep 8, 21 @ 4:58 pm:
Perhaps the most interesting disclosure in the IG report is that during the pendency of the investigation Ex Director Ingram resigned during the pendency of a TRS Board investigation UNRELATED to the IG investigation. So what is that all about?
- Sue - Wednesday, Sep 8, 21 @ 5:21 pm:
Don’t know if the feds will have an interest as the circumstances are pretty narrow but Singh clearly would be subject to an “honest services” mail fraud prosecution.
- Yellow Dog Democrat - Wednesday, Sep 8, 21 @ 5:38 pm:
There seems to be a pattern of corruption and mismanagement with IT contractors and subcontractors.
How’s DoIT doing?
- Anonymous - Wednesday, Sep 8, 21 @ 5:53 pm:
Sorry state appellate, so how does that happen, fired for accusations of wrong doing with money and hired by another state agency?
- Insanity - Wednesday, Sep 8, 21 @ 6:20 pm:
So TRS went from 50 Billion in assets to 62 Billion with the 2 employees leaving. Not a bad investment
- IT Guy - Wednesday, Sep 8, 21 @ 8:04 pm:
@Yellow Dog Democrat
I interviewed with an outside firm that was looking for candidates for this position.
DoIT was not involved in the process.
This does shed some light on why an external candidate didn’t get the position. They picked an insider.
- Cactus - Wednesday, Sep 8, 21 @ 9:36 pm:
I can only imagine the shenanigans that go on when they award hundreds of millions in investment management contracts. ;=) $$$