Excerpt from the Ohio Capital Journal
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine is deeply concerned following a recent report in which we revealed hundreds of text messages of the relationship between a public official and an investment firm seeking to get access to tens of billions of dollars from the state. In an exclusive one-on-one interview, the governor finally addressed the alleged corruption scheme plaguing the retired teachers’ pension fund.
“You’re still on this story, huh?” the governor said to me as we were getting started with our 30-minute interview. “While others have lost attention — you stayed on it.”
For the past year, we have dug into — and exposed — the controversy swirling inside the State Teachers Retirement System (STRS), a roughly $100 billion pension fund for the more than 500,000 active and retired public educators in Ohio.
In summary, there has been constant fighting, two board resignations, and allegations of both a public corruption scheme and the mishandling of funds. There has been a senior staff dismissal and at least two senior staff resignations.
The scandal centers around former board member Wade Steen, board chair Rudy Fichtenbaum, and their relationship with investment firm QED Technologies, run by former Ohio Deputy Treasurer Seth Metcalf and Jonathan (JD) Tremmel.
This piece will be formatted as a Q&A, featuring moments from the half-hour interview. It has been lightly edited only for clarity and length, as well as to get to the crux of the comment.
