Shareholder Spotlight : STRS Ohio – A Monumental Fuck-Over

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Picture this: over half a million educators, the ones who shaped minds and endured classrooms full of chaos, now staring down a retirement that’s more mirage than reality. Their hard-earned contributions – 14 per cent from every sodding paycheque, matched by another 14 per cent from employers for a total 28 per cent bite – funnelling into the State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio, a $100.6 billion behemoth that’s meant to safeguard their future. Instead, it’s become a playground for backroom deals, bloated egos, and outright corruption. We’re talking board members accused of steering billions towards fly-by-night firms, executives cashing out with seven-figure pay-outs while retirees scrape by without a cost-of-living bump, and a leadership carousel spinning so fast it makes your stomach turn. This isn’t incompetence; it’s a calculated betrayal, and it pisses me off to my core. These aren’t faceless numbers – they’re the teachers who stayed late, who cared when no one else did. And for what? A system that’s rotten from the top down.

The QED Bribery Clusterfuck

At the heart of this mess is QED Technologies, a startup investment outfit barely out of nappies, founded by ex-Ohio Deputy Treasurer Seth Metcalf and Jonathan Tremmel in 2020. No clients, no track record, not even registered as a proper broker-dealer or adviser. Yet, STRS board chair Rudy Fichtenbaum and member Wade Steen – the latter yanked by Governor Mike DeWine in 2023 for ghosting meetings, only to claw his way back via court order – were allegedly hell-bent on handing them the keys to a large percentage of the fund. That’s a proposed massive allocation of tens of billions in index funds, folks, allegedly diverted through whispers on the encrypted Signal app, deleted messages, and scripted “Vote!” prompts from QED itself, according to a whistle-blower memo and the AG’s complaint.

That May 2024 whistleblower memo from STRS staff laid it bare: allegations of a “public corruption scheme” where board insiders colluded to bypass due diligence. Ohio AG Dave Yost didn’t mince words – he sued to boot Fichtenbaum and Steen for breaching every fiduciary duty in the book: care, loyalty, trust. Subpoenas flew in August, targeting QED and its cronies. DeWine, usually unflappable, called it a “huge red flag” in April 2025, vowing no more appointments for Steen. Fichtenbaum? He sneered it off as a “sham,” even countersuing Yost in August 2025 over legal fees, as the board toyed with QED deals into September 2024. No indictments yet, but the civil suit drags on, leaving the fund exposed and trust in tatters. It’s not just sloppy; it’s predatory, a slap in the face to every contributor who believed in the system.

Leadership Exits and Payouts: The Revolving Door of Arseholes

Stability? What’s that? STRS has haemorrhaged leaders like a sinking ship. Acting Executive Director Lynn Hoover resigned effective December 1, 2024, amid the scandals; Chief Investment Officer Matt Worley followed suit effective March 31, 2025. The previous exec, William Neville, bagged a $1.65 million golden parachute announced in September 2024 to sod off by year’s end. Governance adviser Aon quit in May 2024, citing fiduciary red flags. CIO Scott Hunt got the boot in October 2024 for Carolyn Everidge-Frey. And don’t forget the admin leave for HR gripes earlier that year. Two board resignations tied to the QED probe, endless infighting – it’s a toxic stew.

DeWine slotted in Jon Allison, a Taft-era operative, to steady the ship, but it’s lipstick on a pig. Lawmakers are eyeing a full restructure in 2025, stripping elected members’ powers amid the chaos. Reformers scream for transparency; the old guard digs in. It’s exhausting, infuriating – these suits treating a public trust like their personal fiefdom, while the real stakeholders foot the bill.

Starving Retirees: No COLAs, Just Empty Promises

Over 150,000 retirees – the backbone of this farce – got their cost-of-living adjustments frozen from 2017 to 2022. Reinstated? Sure, but flat as a pancake, no increases amid skyrocketing inflation – think 2022-2023 CPI spikes topping 8 per cent. That’s the 28 per cent total contributions evaporating into thin air, thanks to “pension debt” and dodgy assumptions, per a 2024 Equable Institute report. But dig deeper: watchdog estimates of underperformance costs nearing $1 billion in a single year alone, blocking those vital bumps.

Groups like the Ohio Retirees Association bay for audits, reinstatement, accountability. On X, it’s raw fury: “Fraud and corruption” chants from pissed-off educators. A state auditor pushed back, saying fees aren’t the villain, but who trusts that when bonuses flow like cheap wine? It’s a gut punch – these folks gave decades, and now they’re rationing groceries because the board couldn’t balance a chequebook.

Bonuses Amid the Bonfire: Underperformance and Greed

STRS has lagged behind peers like OPERS in some metrics, churning subpar net returns while dishing multimillion bonuses to investment staff during dud years – though in recent periods it has shown a slight edge in some metrics, fees and volatility still erode the real value down. Case Western’s Eric Chaffee nailed it in 2024: mismanagement at its finest. Push for cheaper passive indexing? Noble, until it’s steered to unqualified outfits like QED. A 2024 watchdog report fingered those drags as COLA killers; auditors demur, but the math doesn’t lie. Retirees suffer, staff swim in cash – it’s obscene, a middle finger to fairness.

The failed Hackett Group hire in 2024? Triple the rate, zero references, cosy emails with Fichtenbaum post-RFP. Board nixed it for Global Governance Advisors in October, but the stench lingers. Claudia Herrington demanded recusal; common sense, ignored.

Cummins: Another Ethical Shitstain in the Portfolio

And here’s the kicker that ties this whole rotten knot tighter: STRS Ohio, guardians of teachers’ nest eggs, holds a stake in Cummins Inc. – 71,305 shares worth about $22.35 million as of June 2025, a tidy 0.05 per cent slice of the pie. Not massive, but enough to make you choke on the hypocrisy.

Cummins? The diesel giant slapped with a $2 billion settlement in January 2024 for emissions cheating – installing “defeat devices” in 600,000-plus Ram trucks to skirt Clean Air Act rules. Software tweaks to neuter pollution controls, spewing extra nitrogen oxides into the air we breathe. DOJ and EPA hammered them for $1.675 billion in penalties, plus recalls and remediation. It’s not ancient history; it’s the same playbook of corner-cutting and cover-ups that STRS mirrors in spades.

This isn’t coincidence – it’s pattern. STRS funnels funds into a company neck-deep in ethical quicksand, just as its own board dives headfirst into corruption. Cummins’ execs face probes; STRS leaders dodge subpoenas. Both prioritise profit over people, environment be damned. Teachers betting on engines that poison the planet? It’s poetic in its brutality, another thread in the tapestry of failures where public money meets private avarice. When does the reckoning start?

Wake the Hell Up, Ohio

This exposé isn’t exhaustive – the scandals pile up like unpaid bills – but it’s a flare in the dark. Lawmakers probe alternatives, Yost’s suit grinds on, DeWine feigns shock. But without fury from the ground up, it’ll fester. Educators, retirees: demand the overhaul. Strip the cronies, reinstate COLAs, audit every penny. STRS was built on trust; it’s time to burn the betrayers and rebuild.

Lee Thompson – Founder, The Cummins Accountability Project

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