The annuitant membership as of June 30, 2023[update] is over 250,000 retirees and beneficiaries who receive over $552 million in pension and healthcare benefits each month.
Voting against these investments were PSERS board members Muth, Mains, Torsella, Garrity, Vague, Ryan, Bradford and Ortega.
With this financial vehicle, Glencore wanted to make loans to Kurdistan in Iraq, backed by oil in the region.
The strategy of the LEM fund is to "add value and increase rents" by buying and renovating aging apartment buildings.
[25] In a closed door session on September 14, 2020, the PSERS board voted to invest another $100 million in a venture code-named "Project Newton.
"[26][27] Reporting in the Philadelphia Inquirer revealed this as an investment in another Tull-owned company named "Figs", which sells boutique hospital scrubs.
[29] This figure was just 0.02% above the 6.36% threshold that would trigger increased pension plan payments to 8% per paycheck[30] from approximately 100,000 school employees hired since 2011.
The board also voted to hire an outside law firm to investigate an apparently inflated investment return target that may have cost taxpayers at least $25 million.
[38] The fund's audit committee hired law firm Womble Bond Dickinson to investigate how the inflated investment return figure was approved.
The PSERS board voted unanimously to hire New York law firm Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP to deal with the investigation.
[39] On April 9, 2021, a fourth law firm became involved, when the PSERS board resolved to retain the law firm of Sidley Austin LLP to represent and advise the Board in matters involving PSERS and its employees related to a Federal Investigation and related issues.
[41] The amended performance figure in this resolution triggers an increase of the annual deduction from the paychecks of approximately 100,000 public school employees.
[42] After its March 5, 2021 meeting, "The Board subsequently ordered a total review of all performance data to identify any additional errors.
[45][46] In November 2021, lawyers from law firm Womble Bond Dickenson told a fund board committee that they had completed their independent investigation into the inflated investment return figure.
Womble partner Claire J. Rauscher had previously told the PSERS board that some fund employees were concerned with how they would be portrayed in the report, but noted that the investigation found that no criminal activity,[47] and cautioned against full transparency and suggested only briefing the PSERS board verbally, without distributing a written report.
[48] Both Democratic and Republican politicians have called for a public release of the report, including Governor Tom Wolf, Attorney General and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Josh Shapiro, and Republican gubernatorial candidates Jake Corman, Doug Mastriano, Scott Martin, Guy Ciarrochi, Scott Gerow, and John Ventre.
[50] In January 2024, the Securities and Exchange commission fined the fund $1.5 million,[51] finding that the firm “failed to adequately investigate” the difference between the figures.
[40] By April 18, 2020, it was reported that the subject of the investigation was the fund's authorization of $13.5 million used to purchase properties and demolish buildings near its Harrisburg headquarters.
[56] CIO James Grossman defended himself and Glen Grell, citing their recent investment in Figs, a manufacturer of stylish hospital scrubs, which had a successful public stock offering.
[23] Jason Davis, a board member who did not sign the letter responded, saying "A four-times improvement is the grand slam.
[59] In June 2021, Kevin Steinke, a Delaware County public school teacher, sued two of the funds investment consultants alleging that their poor investment advice has cost the fund billions of dollars, forcing teachers to pay approximately $26 million a year in additional pension contributions to cover the difference.
It read, in part: "PSERS is not entertainment but an obligation to prudently invest the taxpayer dollars set aside for hardworking teachers and school employees to ensure they can retire after many years of service to our children and commonwealth.
While it may not make big headlines in newspapers or generate a high number of online clicks, the reality is that all of PSERS’s trustees have been working tirelessly as stewards of the fund, though sometimes with divergent views.
[62] In June 2021, board member and State Senator Katie Muth filed a complaint in Commonwealth Court alleging that PSERS executives were withholding information she sought regarding the fund's day-to-day operations, decision-making processes and investments.
[63] According to the complaint, PSERS chief counsel Jackie Lutz refused Senator Muth's request, citing "ongoing internal and criminal investigations.
[62] In October 2021, two additional board members, State Treasurer Stacy Garrity and Joe Torsella filed a "friend of the court" brief supporting Muth's lawsuit.
This brief was drafted by Pennsylvania Treasury chief council Christopher J. Craig and said that PSERS executives were seeking to "impose for the first time in the Commonwealth" restrictions on board members to obtain information and that PSERS made arguments in court, ostensibly on behalf of the entire board, without seeking Garrity or Torsella's approval.
[69] As of February 2021[update], current members are:[71] Executive Director Glen Grell resigned from the Pennsylvania House of Representatives to join PSERS in 2015.
[77] A list of Grossman's private investments held between 2018 and 2020 were made public through a clerical error by the Pennsylvania State Ethics Commission.
[85] A 2021 independent governance review report[86] compiled by Funston Advisory Services documented some of the administrative practices of the fund.