Public Records Stonewalling About Cryptocurrency In Fairfax County Virginia Pensions

In response to public considerations, the McLean Residents Affiliation will host a digital Public Informational Assembly to debate two of the three Fairfax County Virginia pension funds’ cryptocurrency-related investments tomorrow. Fairfax County’s Retirement Methods Government Director Jeff Weiler, who has publicly acknowledged that cryptocurrency is “no completely different from every other funding” and the Chief Funding Officers of the Staff’ Retirement System (Andrew Spellar) and the Police Officers Retirement System (Katherine Molnar), each of whom have advocated for cryptocurrency investing will focus on their views. For no matter cause, the Chief Funding Officer of the third pension, the Uniformed Staff Retirement System (Brian Morales), who overtly opposes crypto investing by public pensions—in Fairfax County and past—won’t be taking part within the digital assembly or sharing his opinions. Registration is supposedly open to everyone. Most annoying, the general public will likely be unable to confirm any representations made on the public informational assembly relating to the character and extent of crypto-holdings by the Fairfax County pensions since, regardless of excellent public report requests for paperwork, no crypto paperwork have been launched to the general public. A lot for transparency and public accountability in Fairfax County Virginia.

America’s state and native pensions are alleged to be essentially the most transparency on this planet. In spite of everything, trillions of public {dollars} are held in these largely unregulated funding funds and each state has established freedom of data act legal guidelines designed to make sure public accountability. Sadly, as I focus on in my bestselling e-book, Who Stole My Pension? public pensions have develop into very adept at circumventing state public data legal guidelines and stonewalling. I commonly encourage public pension stakeholders to request paperwork relating to their state and native pension’s investments and witness the hostile response they get. Keep in mind, whereas there’s nothing to stop public pensions from assembly and even exceeding the minimal necessities of their state’s public data legal guidelines—i.e., offering the general public with enhanced transparency—all public pensions I’ve ever investigated refuse to supply even minimal data till compelled to take action via litigation.

Whereas we are able to rail eternally concerning the lack of transparency at public pensions, a real-life instance maybe greatest illustrates the issue. Under is a verbatim report of my unsuccessful efforts since early December to acquire data from Fairfax County relating to the crypto-holdings of its three pensions. As you possibly can see, initially I used to be informed the pension had no obligation to answer inquiries from non-Virginia residents or media representatives except the publication might present circulation in Virginia. After I informed the county consultant, “You probably have one thing referred to as the web in Virginia, then I’m positive Forbes.com has circulation in your state,” the county agreed to start to course of my request. So far, all I’ve acquired is a nugatory single-page closely redacted doc.

_________________________

Pricey Sirs,

With respect to the Uniformed Retirement System, please disclose any direct or oblique investments, together with via funds managed by exterior fund managers, in any of the next classes because it pertains to digital property:

Automated market makers (AMM); Centralized exchanges (CEX); Convertible digital currencies (“CVC”); CVC funds and ETFs; CVC indices; Decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs); Decentralized exchanges (DEX); Decentralized finance (DeFi); Derivatives; Ecosystems; Governance tokens; Hedge funds; Id administration; Lending and borrowing; Metaverse; Mining (every kind); NFTs and collectibles; Choices; Oracles; Personal fairness; Portfolio administration; Actual property; Staking; Stablecoins; Tokenized commodities; Tokenized securities; Utility tokens; Enterprise; Pockets suppliers; Wrapped tokens; Yield farming.

Edward Siedle

_________________________________

Despatched: Fri, Dec 9, 2022 3:40 pm

Topic: Re: Forbes article VFOIA-70391

Mr. Siedle,

My title is Jennifer Snyder and I am the FOIA coordinator for Fairfax County’s Retirement Methods. Retirement has acquired your request for data at the moment, December 9, 2022 and has assigned it reference quantity VFOIA-70391. A duplicate can also be connected.

Please be suggested that pursuant to Va. Code § 2.2-3704(A), residents of the Commonwealth of Virginia, representatives of newspapers and magazines with circulation within the Commonwealth, and representatives of radio and tv stations broadcasting in or into the Commonwealth are granted entry to public data within the custody of Fairfax County Authorities. As such, pursuant to Va. Code § 2.2-3704(A), Fairfax County is requiring you to supply your authorized handle. Please present proof of your Virginia state residency at your earliest comfort.

Thanks a lot,

Jennifer Snyder

________________________________

From: Edward Siedle

Despatched: Friday, December 9, 2022 4:21 PM

To: Snyder, Jennifer <Jennifer.Snyder@fairfaxcounty.gov>

Topic: Re: Forbes article VFOIA-70391

Please be suggested that Forbes journal and Forbes.com each have circulation in Virginia.

Nonetheless, you indicated to me at the moment that even when I had been a Virginia resident (or the journal I write for had requisite circulation in VA), the data I requested wouldn’t be publicly disclosed as a result of in 2018 the County agreed with Wall Road fund managers that every one data associated to their underlying portfolio funding holdings constituted commerce secrets and techniques exempt from public disclosure.

Lastly, you represented to me at the moment that the Uniform pension has completely not one of the digital property I’ve listed under, straight or not directly, in its portfolio. You indicated you’ve truly reviewed the holdings of all of the funds through which the Uniform pension has invested and are assured there aren’t any direct or oblique digital holdings. Please verify the entire above.

Have a pleasant weekend.

Ted Siedle

______________________________________

To: Edward siedle

Despatched: Fri, Dec 9, 2022 5:04 pm

Topic: RE: Forbes article VFOIA-70391

Totally denied, no affirmation given.

Please enable me to make clear.

I stated in 2018 Fairfax Retirement Company adopted and applied VA-FOIA procedures handed all the way down to companies from the Fairfax County FOIA company.

Step 1 is to finish the requisite that we comply with our FOIA procedures for “residents of the Commonwealth of Virginia, representatives of newspapers and magazines with circulation within the Commonwealth, and representatives of radio and tv stations broadcasting in or into the Commonwealth.”

I’ve reviewed your article Ohio Lecturers Pension Has No Remark Or Information Concerning Its Cryptocurrency Investments (forbes.com) and validate that you’re a consultant of a [digital] journal with circulation in VA. Thanks for confirming.

I additionally suggested of a step 2, which I’ll do now:

Fairfax County could assess affordable costs to not exceed its precise price incurred in accessing, duplicating, supplying, looking for requested data, or growing a price estimate. If you need a price estimate, please tell us promptly earlier than we offer a response to your request. Please observe if we don’t hear from you promptly, we’ll proceed to course of your request, and you could be accountable for any costs incurred.

I’m going to waive the associated fee and estimates right now. Do you have to want to proceed with a request underneath VFOIA-70391, I’ll present a price estimate.

I’m waiving prices related to this request, right now, as a result of:

Please be suggested that VFOIA “applies to requests for public data, not requests for data or for solutions to questions.” VFOIA Advisory Council Op. AO-06-05 (Might 31, 2005). To that finish, if this had been a request cognizable underneath VFOIA, as a result of it’s a request for data moderately than one searching for public data, no response is required.

As all the time, please be happy to succeed in again out to me for added help. Within the meantime, some public data for the Fairfax County Uniformed Retirement System could also be discovered on our web site right here: Monetary Publications | Retirement Methods (fairfaxcounty.gov).

Thanks,

Jennifer Snyder

__________________________________________

From: Edward siedle

To: Jennifer.Snyder@fairfaxcounty.gov <Jennifer.Snyder@fairfaxcounty.gov>

Despatched: Tue, Dec 13, 2022 2:04 pm

Topic: Re: Forbes article VFOIA-70391

Nicely, Jennifer, here is my revised request.

With respect to the Uniformed Retirement System, please present any paperwork associated to any direct or oblique investments, together with via funds managed by exterior fund managers, in any of the next classes because it pertains to digital property:

Automated market makers (AMM); Centralized exchanges (CEX); Convertible digital currencies (“CVC”); CVC funds and ETFs; CVC indices; Decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs); Decentralized exchanges (DEX); Decentralized finance (DeFi); Derivatives; Ecosystems; Governance tokens; Hedge funds; Id administration; Lending and borrowing; Metaverse; Mining (every kind); NFTs and collectibles; Choices; Oracles; Personal fairness; Portfolio administration; Actual property; Staking; Stablecoins; Tokenized commodities; Tokenized securities; Utility tokens; Enterprise; Pockets suppliers; Wrapped tokens; Yield farming.

Edward Siedle

____________________________

From: Edward siedle

Despatched: Monday, December 19, 2022 3:39 PM

To: Snyder, Jennifer <Jennifer.Snyder@fairfaxcounty.gov>

Topic: Fwd: Forbes article VFOIA-70391

Jennifer,

Please verify receipt of my revised request under. Additionally, please verify that with respect to the Staff pension fund, direct and oblique investments in cryptocurrency and associated corporations prior to now exceeded 10% of the portfolio, inclusive of dedicated capital and that such investments within the Police pension exceeded 13% prior to now—previous to any markdowns of crypto property. Lastly, please verify that such investments within the Uniform plan quantity to at the least $190,000, based mostly upon solely these exterior managers which have responded to inquiries by the plan. With respect to any exterior managers that haven’t agreed to reveal cryptocurrency property, the quantities are unknown.

Thanks.

Edward Siedle

__________________________________

From: Snyder, Jennifer <Jennifer.Snyder@fairfaxcounty.gov>

To: Edward siedle <esiedle@aol.com>

Cc: Morales, Brian <Brian.Morales@fairfaxcounty.gov>; Spellar, Andrew <Andrew.Spellar@fairfaxcounty.gov>; Molnar, Katherine <Katherine.Molnar@fairfaxcounty.gov>

Despatched: Mon, Dec 19, 2022 4:03 pm

Topic: RE: Forbes article VFOIA-70391

Pricey Mr. Siedle,

I verify receipt of the revised request on 12/13/2022. On 12/14/2022 I supplied the revised request to the CIO, Brian Morales to start figuring out managers which will have the record of asset classes and the place I’d discover a report aware of your request.

On Friday, 12/16/2022, I acquired an e-mail affirmation from Brian Morales:

Jennifer,

I’ve spoken with Edward Siedle and answered his VFOIA inquiries to his satisfaction.

Brian Morales

CIO – Fairfax County Uniformed Retirement System

I’ve since closed VFOIA-70391. Are you stating that the cellphone dialog was to not your satisfaction? If that’s the case, I’m comfortable to reopen the request and do a seek for data we could have that is perhaps aware of your request.

Please do not forget that VFOIA “applies to requests for public data, not requests for data or for solutions to questions.” VFOIA Advisory Council Op. AO-06-05 (Might 31, 2005). We don’t make confirmations.

Please submit a request for any data for any Retirement Methods not initially referenced underneath VFOIA-70391.

As soon as I’ve a request for public data from you, I’ll present a price and an effort estimate to your evaluation and settlement previous to starting work.

Thanks,

Jennifer Snyder

____________________________________

From: Andrew Spellar

Despatched: December 21, 2022

Mr. Siedle,

To a big extent our arms are tied in that we enter into confidentiality agreements with our managers underneath provisions inside the Virginia FOIA statutes to guard portfolio investments.

I might level you to our web site and our Annual Monetary Studies that are the general public paperwork of report.

Financial Publications | Retirement Systems (fairfaxcounty.gov)

Moreover, you might be free to method managers along with your inquiries straight.

Regards,

Andy

Andrew J. Spellar

Chief Funding Officer

Fairfax County Staff’ System

______________________________________

From: Edward siedle

Despatched: Wednesday, December 21, 2022 12:17 PM

To: Snyder, Jennifer <Jennifer.Snyder@fairfaxcounty.gov>

Cc: Morales, Brian <Brian.Morales@fairfaxcounty.gov>; Spellar, Andrew <Andrew.Spellar@fairfaxcounty.gov>; Molnar, Katherine <Katherine.Molnar@fairfaxcounty.gov>

Topic: Re: Forbes article VFOIA-70391

Ms. Snyder,

I’ve filed a public data request with you, as you’ve instructed me to do, versus a request for data or for solutions to questions (as to which you’ve suggested me you don’t have any obligation to reply— at the same time as a courtesy to main media). So far, I’ve been supplied with no public data. None. I’ve certainly spoken with Mr. Morales and requested, most not too long ago, that you simply or he verify the data he supplied to me over the phone, together with the chances of crypto property held within the Police, Basic Staff and Uniform pensions, previous to any markdowns. In the event you’re not going to supply me with the data requested and ask that I rely solely upon data supplied verbally by Mr. Morales, please verify the accuracy of that data.

Edward Siedle

____________________________________

From: Snyder, Jennifer

Despatched: Wednesday, December 21, 2022 5:35 PM

To: Edward siedle

Cc: Morales, Brian <Brian.Morales@fairfaxcounty.gov>; Spellar, Andrew <Andrew.Spellar@fairfaxcounty.gov>; Molnar, Katherine <Katherine.Molnar@fairfaxcounty.gov>

Topic: RE: Forbes article VFOIA-70391

Mr. Siedle,

VFOIA-70391 pertains to Fairfax County Uniformed Retirement System. We now have not acquired a request for data from you for the Staff System or Police. I did obtain your affirmation of a revised request the place you added the Staff’ and Police:

“Additionally, please verify that with respect to the Staff pension fund, direct and oblique investments in cryptocurrency and associated corporations prior to now exceeded 10% of the portfolio, inclusive of dedicated capital and that such investments within the Police pension exceeded 13% prior to now—previous to any markdowns of crypto property.”

This was not a request for public data and was added to an current, open request. As a courtesy to you, we’ll open a brand new request with the identical, requested particulars for the Staff’ and Police Retirement Methods.

Concerning VFOIA-70391, there are 2 paperwork that, when utilized collectively, could also be aware of your request. I’ve reviewed our contracted settlement with the funding firm and it states we’re to supply the corporate a duplicate of the request, and responsive paperwork for his or her evaluation. They’ll evaluation the request and paperwork for proprietary and commerce secret exemptions that apply (if any). On the similar time, I’ll have our authorized division do the identical evaluation. As soon as all events are in settlement, we’ll reply to VFOIA-70391.

As a result of vacation season and my incapacity to manage the time effort of outdoor events, I want to ask for an extension to the 5 enterprise day rule. I’ll work as diligently as potential via the subsequent 5 enterprise days to get you a response. I’ll preserve you knowledgeable as to the work being accomplished by the exterior events and ask that you simply please be versatile if there turns into a necessity to increase the deadline. Once more, I’ll preserve you posted.

I’d prefer to advise you that the FOIA request for the Uniformed Retirement System occurs to be for just one funding. Staff and Police doubtlessly have 4-6 investments and can take incrementally extra time. Extra on the extra Retirement Methods after I open the brand new request and start the method.

Jennifer Snyder

________________________________________

From: Snyder, Jennifer

Despatched: Wednesday, December 28, 2022 11:45 AM

To: edward siedle <esiedle@aol.com>

Cc: Ando, Yuko <Yuko.Ando@fairfaxcounty.gov>

Topic: RE: Forbes article VFOIA-70391 & VFOIA-71027

Mr. Siedle,

Attributable to staffing shortages via the vacation season, Fairfax County requires a further seven working days to answer VFOIA-70391. Va. Code Ann. § 2.2-3704(B)(4). The County will make any responsive data recognized accessible to you 7 working days after at the moment, the primary 5 enterprise days after your up to date request was acquired, or any updates that may be supplied sooner.

As a courtesy to you, I’ve created VFOIA-71027 which is able to embody your request for Staff’ and Police Officer’s Methods data. Presently, for a similar cause acknowledged above, I want to inform you that VFOIA-71027 can even require a further 7 working days.

Thanks a lot to your curiosity in Fairfax County’s Retirement Methods.

Hope you might be having an exquisite vacation season.

Jennifer Snyder

_________________________________

On Thursday, December 29, 2022, 10:40 AM, Snyder, Jennifer <Jennifer.Snyder@fairfaxcounty.gov> wrote:

Pricey Mr. Siedle,

In gentle of your publication yesterday Fairfax County Virginia Police And Staff Pensions Gamble 13%, 10% In Crypto; Uniformed Pension Not-So-A lot? (forbes.com) do you continue to need us to course of your FOIA requests? We’re comfortable to proceed to analysis data that could be responsive, however want to verify your need for us to proceed the trouble.

Hope to listen to from you quickly. We stand able to proceed.

Thanks,

Jennifer Snyder

___________________________________

From: Edward siedle

Despatched: Thursday, December 29, 2022 11:29 AM

To: Snyder, Jennifer <Jennifer.Snyder@fairfaxcounty.gov>

Cc: Ando, Yuko <Yuko.Ando@fairfaxcounty.gov>

Topic: Re: Forbes article VFOIA-70391 & VFOIA-71027

Sure. Please do. Thanks and comfortable new yr.

Edward Siedle

_______________________________________

January 6, 2023

Mr. Siedle,

A report aware of your request (VFOIA-70391) is connected. Please be suggested that parts of this report are redacted pursuant to Code of Virginia sections 2.2-3705.7(12) and a couple of.2-3705.1(13) – as marked on the connected report. The second web page of the report, containing one paragraph regarding a mixture of a personal entity’s portfolio corporations or properties, is withheld in its entirety pursuant to Virginia Code part 2.2-3705.7(12).

Sincerely,

Jennifer Snyder

________________________

In conclusion, in case you are a public pension stakeholder (both a taxpayer or participant) I encourage you to file public data requests for details about administration (or mismanagement) of investments. Right here’s hoping you’ll have higher luck than I’ve ever had.