Business

Damning Inspector General Audit Finds G.E.R.S. Made Illegal Investment With Taxpayers Pension Fund; Could Lose Over $40 Million On Speculative Deal

ST. THOMAS -- An audit performed by the Office of the Inspector General (O.I.G.) on the Government Employees' Retirement System (G.E.R.S.), found that the system's Board of Trustees continues to mishandle tens of millions of dollars of government employees pension monies, through ill-advised and an abundance of risky investments. The audit, seen here, and made available by the O.I.G., specifically targets G.E.R.S.'s Alternative Investment Program (A.I.P.), which was established as law on November 2, 2005, as Act 6794, and is described as "investment opportunities that have not been identified by the traditional public equity or fixed income capital markets." Categories of A.I.P include private equity, natural resources, managed futures and commodities, hedge funds and portfolio overlay and real estate. The intent of the program was to increase income for G.E.R.S. by allowing more risky investments with higher rates of return. And while the original Act allowed for only 5...