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* UPDATED x1 * BGA takes another look at Pritzker’s investment in Centene

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* From January of 2019…

Billionaire J.B. Pritzker on Thursday promised to shift some of his immense wealth into a blind trust to avoid conflicts of interest, but it’s unclear whether he will be able to fully wall off his fortune from his official duties as Illinois governor.

Pritzker said he has appointed Chicago-based Northern Trust Co. to act as an independent trustee and make all investment decisions about his personal assets. Those same rules won’t apply to the extended Pritzker family fortune that’s held in secretive onshore and offshore trusts. Pritzker said the terms governing the family trusts do not allow for the assets to be moved into the blind trust.

In addition, Pritzker is divesting “his personally-held direct interests in companies that have contracts” with the state, his campaign said. […]

What Pritzker promises to set up is not a true blind trust, however, since he will not be totally “blind.” He will need to know the names of the companies and funds he’s invested in to do his taxes and to comply with the state’s ethics laws.

* BGA…

In 2019, Pritzker’s first year as governor, Centene faced federal antitrust scrutiny amid concerns it would control more than half the Medicaid market in Illinois and other states. To clinch the merger, Centene needed the Pritzker administration’s approval to swap thousands of patient accounts with other state Medicaid contractors.

“I can’t thank you enough for your help in setting up the meeting between Governor Pritzker, yourself and Michael Neidorff, CEO of Centene Corporation,” said Centene lobbyist Julie A. Curry in a March 29, 2019 email to Illinois Deputy Gov. Sol Flores.

Curry followed up with a July 30, 2019 email to Anne Caprara, Pritzker’s chief of staff.

“Anne, any help that you can give in getting the Governor’s Office to complete their internal review of the Centene/Wellcare MOU with HFS would be greatly appreciated,” Curry wrote. “Please let me know if you any questions or concerns. Thank you for your consideration and help!!”

In May 2019, Pritzker also accepted an invitation from then-CEO Neidorff to speak at a ribbon cutting for a new Centene facility in Carbondale.

Then in September 2019, Pritzker’s calendar listed an hour-long call “on Centene Merger” with seven top aides, including Ann Spillane, his general counsel, and her deputy general counsel. One of the attendees, Emily Bittner, the governor’s deputy communications director, downplayed the importance of the meeting as “general background on the issues relating to the Centene merger.”

“The GC and deputy GC were not asking the governor to make any decisions, only giving him background,” Bittner said in an email to the BGA.

In a written statement to the BGA, Spillane said it was her job — and not the governor’s — to “make final decisions” on the memorandum of understanding between Centene and the state Department of Healthcare and Family Services.

“I provided the Governor and senior staff with a detailed background briefing to address questions and to assure the Governor that all potential legal issues had been considered,” Spillane told the BGA. “I then advised HFS that the agency could sign the MOU.”

Bittner portrayed Pritzker’s meetings with company executives as insignificant.

“Governor Pritzker meets regularly with CEOs who do business in the state of Illinois, and he regularly attends events to celebrate the creation of new jobs throughout the state,” she wrote. “Our records indicate that the April meeting with the CEO of Centene was a brief introductory meeting and that the company was informed in advance that the meeting would not involve any discussion of the Wellcare transaction. The Governor was not involved in the transaction.”

In December 2019, with the approval of the Pritzker administration, Centene announced it was selling thousands of patients to another insurer, easing federal antitrust concerns.

In January 2020, Centene closed its deal to purchase Wellcare. That year, Pritzker’s trust bought his Centene stock, his ethics filings show. Also that year, the state oversaw a bulk patient transfer agreement that gave Centene a toehold in the Cook County Medicaid market, and Illinois activated Centene’s separate contract for the medical care of 36,000 juvenile state wards.

With these new lines of business secured, Centene subsidiary Meridian reported profits of $181.5 million on premiums from Illinois Medicaid contracts worth $5.2 billion in 2021. Those profits did not include more than $1 billion in management fees Meridian paid to its affiliates under intercompany arrangements, state insurance filings show.

Pritzker’s ethics filings show he made a capital gain from selling Centene stock last year, but the amount of the gain is not specified.

Pritzker was notified of his holdings in Centene in 2021 when it was listed among the 300-plus entities on his annual economic disclosure filings, a report required of all elected officials. Those disclosures require public officials to list all holdings worth more than $5,000. The specific value of the holdings does not have to be disclosed, nor would Pritzker provide it.

The BGA first reported his trust’s Centene investment in February. At that time, the Pritzker administration said he was not involved with Centene.

“The governor is not involved in the contracting process related to Centene,” Jordan Abudayyeh, Pritzker’s communications director, told the BGA. “There is nothing he would have to recuse himself from.”

Questioned by Chicago media days later, Pritzker made a striking admission: The governor said he only learned of his investment in Centene when the BGA contacted him about it.

The people who run that blind trust are doing the governor no favors.

*** UPDATE *** Natalie Edelstein at the Pritzker campaign…

Any Illinoisan who has ever worked with a financial advisor would agree that if they had no idea what their financial advisor was doing with their money, they would feel blind. Under the blind trust rules the Governor has in place, Illinois voters know as much about the Governor’s investments as he does. The BGA continues to have trouble understanding the basic facts. The Governor did divest his personal holdings in companies with state contracts before he even created his blind trust and entered office. Anything the trustees have done since then, he has had no say in. The Governor has a legal obligation to file a complete and correct tax return and a complete and correct Statement of Economic Interests. If BGA and its so-called experts had their way, Governor Pritzker wouldn’t even have the information he needs to meet these legal requirements. Imagine the story BGA would write then.

…Adding… ILGOP…

“Governor Pritzker’s repeated lack of transparency is disturbing. The Governor needs to answer why he has failed to avoid financial conflicts by not telling his trust managers to refrain from investing in state contractors. The Governor, or his trusts, should release all correspondence and documents pertaining to any companies in his ‘blind’ trust that have done business with the state since he became Governor. To do otherwise would be a disservice to the voters of Illinois and to honest and transparent government,” said Illinois Republican Party Chairman Don Tracy.

Pritzker most definitely should have told the blind trust managers to never invest in state contractors, etc. But if he does it now, it ain’t actually blind.

posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Aug 30, 22 @ 10:48 am

Comments

“In a written statement to the BGA, Spillane said it was her job — and not the governor’s — to “make final decisions” on the memorandum of understanding between Centene and the state Department of Healthcare and Family Services.
“I provided the Governor and senior staff with a detailed background briefing to address questions and to assure the Governor that all potential legal issues had been considered,” Spillane told the BGA. “I then advised HFS that the agency could sign the MOU.”

Sets up probable deniability for JB - but it sure leaves wide open the idea that the staffer Simply acted on his behalf.

Comment by Donnie Elgin Tuesday, Aug 30, 22 @ 11:00 am
I mean what does the BGA want the governor to do? He set up a blind trust with a reputable bank, and it’s not his fault it legally can’t be a literal blind trust.

Doubt Pritzker needs to risk his reputation for a short-term capital gain. I know the rich can be greedier than we think, but he didn’t get his money from being a hard-driving shark.

Comment by ElTacoBandito Tuesday, Aug 30, 22 @ 11:07 am
Hat tip to Pulitzer Pride winner David Jackson and his Depaul University journalism graduate students on researching and writing this exposé.

Comment by Back to the Future Tuesday, Aug 30, 22 @ 11:10 am
====The people who run that blind trust are doing the governor no favors.====
I agree. But, even though it is a “blind” trust JB could have structured it differently. Put in some parameters that the trust is supposed to follow like businesses they cannot invest in. He might not have the best investment return but he easily could have parameters on where the money is invested. Treasury bonds, etc.

Comment by Been There Tuesday, Aug 30, 22 @ 11:12 am
“BGA continues to have trouble understanding the basic facts”, “so-called experts”

I’m not sure if publicly insulting the BGA staff’s intelligence is the best way to go about this and may backfire by causing extra motivation for the people investigating the matter. BGA isn’t IPI or Fox News.

Comment by Chicago's Finest Tuesday, Aug 30, 22 @ 11:13 am
It’s hard to take the journalism side of BGA seriously when they won’t include a rider at the end disclosing the Ken Griffin entanglements.

Comment by misfire Tuesday, Aug 30, 22 @ 11:21 am
I still don’t see any there, there.

Given the timelines here, it’s quite possible his ‘capital gains’ were negative after being adjusted for inflation.

Comment by TheInvisibleMan Tuesday, Aug 30, 22 @ 11:23 am
Hard for me to really care about where the Governor’s blind trust is invested when the other choice advocates against my rights and is a fundamental danger to this state…should we get into Donald Trump’s business dealings while he was President? Oh not the same, got it.

Comment by A-Man Tuesday, Aug 30, 22 @ 11:24 am
Never trust a coincidence? The “I just sign the papers” defense is laughable. Waiting for the national media to run with this one. Time for full transparency.

Comment by Barely Blind Trust Tuesday, Aug 30, 22 @ 11:27 am
–The “I just sign the papers” defense is laughable.–

There is an entire division in the state Treasures office that does nothing but handle all the money and property individuals of the public have legal right to, but don’t know about. I check it every year, because once your finances grow in complexity it’s very easy to not know about something.

Comment by TheInvisibleMan Tuesday, Aug 30, 22 @ 11:32 am
To the update… The JBP for POTUS team will need a better answer than this. Not sure combative is the optimal route to take on this.

Comment by SWSider Tuesday, Aug 30, 22 @ 11:38 am
Given their Griffin ties, BGA has lost their ability to claim objectivity. And this story is no exception.

The governor is damned if he does and damned if he doesn’t on this. There literally is nothing he could do with his assets that wouldn’t provoke the ire of the BGA.

To make sure I understand the story. The governor set up a blind trust. In setting it up he divested from state contractors. He then set up the blind trust. And the only reason he knows what’s in the blind trust is state law requires him to attest the accuracy of his holdings in signing his annual economic interest statement. So State ethics laws require him to sacrifice some of the blindness of the trust. But he can’t communicate with the blind trust or influence what they do and nobody is alleging that he’s doing so. But BGA is upset that he isn’t forcing the trustees of his blind trust to divest from holdings that now have state contracts even though doing so would be ILLEGAL. Oh, and some of the companies with state business also have lobbyists. Got it.

And btw, not to engage in whataboutism, but are they going to look into Farmer Bailey’s 15,000 acres and all the bills he voted on that benefitted his farms or does BGA think it’s not worth doing because Bailey is losing? Or is that not part of the Griffin agenda?

Really disappointed in this organization I once thought highly of.

Comment by New Day Tuesday, Aug 30, 22 @ 11:38 am
It seems the BGA is adrift on this issue. Either the governor can control investments or he can’t. If he can’t there’s no there there.

Comment by Friendly Bob Adams Tuesday, Aug 30, 22 @ 11:38 am
i guess i’ll just wait here for darren bailey to release his tax returns…

oh wait. he said he won’t.

the man gets federal subsidies and who knows what else and is a millionaire and won’t release his taxes, but yes, jb spent hundreds of millions of dollars to be governor and hand his money over to people to manage because somehow they were going to make him richer than he already was.

Comment by LOL Tuesday, Aug 30, 22 @ 11:40 am
So, you have interests in state contractors which is shady in our opinion because we believe you will direct favorable action towards those contractors and we scold you for not being aware of your allegedly shady dealings. Brilliant.

Comment by Sir Bedevere Tuesday, Aug 30, 22 @ 11:45 am
I’m assuming the gov.foia@illinois.gov has been getting requests for emails between JB and Northern Trust.

Comment by Donnie Elgin Tuesday, Aug 30, 22 @ 11:49 am
Well, paperwork certainly is a challenge. From the SOS website:

File Number 17099469
Entity Name BETTER GOVERNMENT ASSOCIATION, INC.
Status NOT GOOD STANDING

Comment by Sir Bedevere Tuesday, Aug 30, 22 @ 11:59 am
Natalie Edelstein’s response is fire. clear, concise and right.

Comment by Amalia Tuesday, Aug 30, 22 @ 11:59 am
=I agree. But, even though it is a “blind” trust JB could have structured it differently. Put in some parameters that the trust is supposed to follow like businesses they cannot invest in.=

Then it would not be a blind trust.

Our previous governor refused to take action on a serial polouter that he had an investment in. BGA was silent.

Comment by JS Mill Tuesday, Aug 30, 22 @ 12:06 pm
“Well, paperwork certainly is a challenge. From the SOS website:

File Number 17099469
Entity Name BETTER GOVERNMENT ASSOCIATION, INC.
Status NOT GOOD STANDING”

And they still have Andy Shaw listed as their agent when he’s been retired from there for several years. Oops.

Comment by New Day Tuesday, Aug 30, 22 @ 12:11 pm
This is a probable I would absolutely love to have, finances so ample and complex that even a blind trust doesn’t work. Man!

Comment by levivotedforjudy Tuesday, Aug 30, 22 @ 12:43 pm
All the negative comments from Team Pritzker and commenters about the BGA and the article that appeared today lead me to read the story again.
It still appears well researched and well written in an objective and professional manner.
My conclusion after the second reading remains the same. IMHO Pritzer was acting and continues to be acting in an unethical manner.

Comment by Back to the Future Tuesday, Aug 30, 22 @ 12:52 pm
Someone is reading Cap Fax. From the SOS website that has been updated sometime in the last hour:

File Number 17099469
Entity Name BETTER GOVERNMENT ASSOCIATION, INC.
Status ACTIVE

Comment by Sir Bedevere Tuesday, Aug 30, 22 @ 1:06 pm
===Questioned by Chicago media days later, Pritzker made a striking admission: The governor said he only learned of his investment in Centene when the BGA contacted him about it.===

Maybe I’m dumb but what is striking about this

Shouldn’t this be what we want. That he is unaware of his investments.

Comment by Nick Tuesday, Aug 30, 22 @ 1:08 pm
But apparently Andy Shaw is donating his services as the registered agent.

Name ANDY SHAW
Address 223 W JACKSON BLVD STE 900
CHICAGO , IL 60606
Change Date Tuesday, 30 August 2011

Comment by Sir Bedevere Tuesday, Aug 30, 22 @ 1:11 pm
“My conclusion after the second reading remains the same. IMHO Pritzer was acting and continues to be acting in an unethical manner.”

How? He can’t order his blind trust trustees to divest? He is required to sign his statement of economic interests. Should he order the state to divest from companies he’s invested in? Seems to me like he’s doing exactly what he should - set up a blind trust and not be involved with how it’s run…

Comment by Huh? Tuesday, Aug 30, 22 @ 1:37 pm
Alaska law requires blind trust for the governor - they have a provision that would prevent this …

“Trustee shall be directed to avoid knowingly making any investment in a corporation, business, or venture over which the settlor is likely to take action by virtue of the settlor’s official position.”

Comment by Donnie Elgin Tuesday, Aug 30, 22 @ 1:41 pm
Huh?
Appreciate and respect your opinion on this.
While Mr. Miller did an excellent job on doing a review of the BGA story, the BGA Story was pretty lengthy and included some additional facts that were not helpful to Team Pritzker’s spin.
Hopefully reading the full article might bring you closer to my position.
One thing that jumped out at me was the involvement of people on the East Jackson Street LLC Pritzker Payroll. A quick check on Pritzker’s private payroll showed one person mentioned in the story making $139,000 in addition to his state payroll. I am not saying that person is not worth every penny, but it seems unusual based on my knowledge of how state government was run in the past.
Imagine if you were a competitor of one of the 12 State Contractors that Pritzker was making money off of and you had a problem or issue with the state and had to meet with a state employee that reported to or was under a management chart of one of the Pritzker privately paid employees. At best I think we can all agree that would be awkward. Some of these employees appeared to be quite aggressive in being supportive of at least one of the contractors.
I thought the article was well researched and presented a generally unattractive picture of the ethical issues involved in these relationships.
Again respect your opinion, but still thinking these arrangements just don’t sound appropriate.

Comment by Back to the Future Tuesday, Aug 30, 22 @ 2:50 pm
Unless they can find some kind of communication between JB and the bank running the blind trust I don’t see anything here.

Comment by Perrid Tuesday, Aug 30, 22 @ 2:58 pm
Unless they can find some kind of communication between JB and the bank running the blind trustI don’t see anything here”
Does the State Ethics Statement prepared with information provided by the bank that Pritzker signed count?

Comment by Back to the Future Tuesday, Aug 30, 22 @ 3:09 pm
Back to the Future,
Not sure how JB’s private compensation to his top staff plays into the story. But since you are going beyond the scope of the story, imagine if an advocacy group took over $300K in donations from one of the leading political funders in the country and then handed that donor a platform to blast their political opponent. At best I think we can all agree that would be awkward. I think we can agree that the advocacy group has been aggressive in investigating the political opponent. I respect your opinion, but still thinking these arrangements just don’t sound appropriate.

Comment by Sir Bedevere Tuesday, Aug 30, 22 @ 3:11 pm
=It still appears well researched and well written in an objective and professional manner.
My conclusion after the second reading remains the same. IMHO Pritzer was acting and continues to be acting in an unethical manner.=

Right, and your unbiased (clears throat) opinion is just that? Hardly.

The BGA is in Griffin’s pocketbook. Any story, no matter how it appears to be researched, that is funded by the political sugar daddy of the anti Pritzker folks is tainted.

I mean, since we are talking ethics I am surprised that you would not have noted that fact.

Comment by JS Mill Tuesday, Aug 30, 22 @ 3:43 pm
This “ethics reform” posturing reeks of silliness. Which is it folks? Do we want the Governor to have no control of his assets or do we want him to control his assets and do the things that “we” think is right?

It cannot be both.

And this is the problem of the GOP today. As long as they prop up the false idol of Trump who, to this day, hasn’t release any serious documents for financial transparency, the ILGOP should just save it.

Comment by MG85 Tuesday, Aug 30, 22 @ 3:57 pm
Frankly I just do not believe a Pulitzer Winning reporter and graduate journalism students from Depaul University that wrote this story are in anyone’s pocketbook.
The fact that the BGA and David Jackson did some mentoring in bringing these students on board is probably the most important part of the process in getting this story out.
It would not surprise me to see some of these students and other younger reporters that are showing up lead the way in political and government reporting in the future.

Comment by Back to the Future Tuesday, Aug 30, 22 @ 4:11 pm
-Does the State Ethics Statement prepared with information provided by the bank that Pritzker signed count?-

Are you suggesting he should refuse to file the form (violation of state law), or read it and sign it (destroying his pledge to wall off information about his investments) or not carefully read the document before he signs (that very act is condemned in the article).

Comment by Sir Bedevere Tuesday, Aug 30, 22 @ 4:23 pm
Sir Bedevere
Pritzker took steps that put him in a ethically challenged position.
I suppose if he asked me for a suggestion I would suggest he admit that this mess is caused by him, apologize and amend the trust to follow the Alaska law that was mentioned by in an earlier comment.
One thing I think we can all agree on is that Mr. Jackson and his DePaul interns did a great job in documenting a year by year account of Pritzker’s personal investments he reported in companies with state business exceeding a combined $20 Billion. That was some great reporting.

Comment by Back to the Future Tuesday, Aug 30, 22 @ 4:45 pm
-Frankly I just do not believe a Pulitzer Winning reporter and graduate journalism students from Depaul University that wrote this story are in anyone’s pocketbook.-

BGA 101 is to point to campaign contributions and the actions of elected officials who receive those campaign contributions. The implication is clear, the $ gets the donor something. Pointing out that the BGA has received quite a bit of funding from Griffin (also from then private citizen Bruce Rauner) is the same thing the BGA does all the time. It reports to the public on its findings and lets everyone draw their own conclusions (with a nudge or two along the way).

Comment by Sir Bedevere Tuesday, Aug 30, 22 @ 5:04 pm
===BGA isn’t IPI or Fox News===

True. IPI and Fox News have pretty much always been transparent about their biases. BGA–not so much in recent years.

Comment by Leslie K Tuesday, Aug 30, 22 @ 5:34 pm
-Pritzker took steps that put him in a ethically challenged position.-

Yes, had he never agreed to a blind trust, which is not required by law, he would not be in his current circumstances. Latest example of no good deed goes unpunished.

-I suppose if he asked me for a suggestion I would suggest he admit that this mess is caused by him, apologize and amend the trust to follow the Alaska law that was mentioned by in an earlier comment.-

Well, the Illinois law, aka the Statement of Economic Interests, requires him to list his assets and his indication that he doesn’t read it is condemned in the article. Also if the solution is that a blind trust CAN receive instructions from the beneficiary under (insert circumstances someone finds compelling), no way that standard will backfire in spectacular fashion.

-One thing I think we can all agree on is that Mr. Jackson and his DePaul interns did a great job in documenting a year by year account of Pritzker’s personal investments he reported in companies with state business exceeding a combined $20 Billion. That was some great reporting.-

Agree on the reporting on the the numbers. The implication that is laced throughout the article, and voiced by third party experts that the BGA highlights, is that the Governor is unethical or suspect, well, reasonable minds can disagree. I particularly enjoyed the one expert who stated the the Governor is using his trust to “conceal the governor’s pursuit of personal profits”, I guess I missed the part of the article that factually supports the claim he is actively pursuing personal profit through state government. Given the limited information required on the Statement of Economic Interests we have no idea if he made $ on the state government related investments or lost $.

Comment by Sir Bedevere Tuesday, Aug 30, 22 @ 5:54 pm
===Pritzker most definitely should have told the blind trust managers to never invest in state contractors, etc. But if he does it now, it ain’t actually blind.===

“If Santiago wasn’t suppose to be touched… why would there be a need to transfer Santiago off the base… Colonel?”

Comment by Oswego Willy Tuesday, Aug 30, 22 @ 6:04 pm
If the trustees are directed to not invest in anything that poses a conflict of interest should the trustor know about it — why bother with the blind trust? The trustor could just… have full knowledge of their assets if that was their investment strategy?

J.B. knows that he has enough in Centene to meet the reporting threshold - $5k or $1.2k in dividends. That’s it. Meanwhile BGA knows they took $100k - 20 times that - from a chief rival of J.B. Pritzker and acts offended when people point that out. What a joke.

Comment by GC Tuesday, Aug 30, 22 @ 6:49 pm