Excerpt from the Toledo Blade
Even as an outside-funded, deep dive into the Ohio teachers' retirement system continues, an effort is under way to do the same with the pension fund for most other government employees.
"There are certain uniquely positive features — including strong participant organizations and board members willing to break from the pack and speak out —with these funds that lead me to believe that these investigations could have very positive outcomes, outcomes that have not happened anywhere else in the United States," said Ted Siedle.
The former Securities and Exchange Commission attorney, financial forensics investigator, and co-author of the book Who Stole My Pension? has already been hired by a group of about 1,000 retired teachers who've challenged decisions made by the State Teachers Retirement System.
Now a Kickstarter campaign is being launched to raise funds for a similar forensics audit of the Public Employees Retirement System.
Together, the two funds have assets of about $200 billion.
Like the STRS effort, in which retired teachers raised an estimated $75,000 to pay for the audit, a Facebook discussion group, Save Ohio Pensions, for members of all five state employee funds hopes to raise a similar amount for a PERS review.
