Exclusive | Minnesota teacher pension fund under Tim Walz blatantly cooked, investigator finds: Undetected for decades

A pension investigator has found the books of Minnesota’s state retirement system under Gov.Tim Walz’s oversight “blatantly cooked” and cloaked in secrecy – prompting teachers in his home state to beg the vice-presidential candidate to tell the truth about lackluster investment performance and massive hidden fees.Edward Siedle, an ex-US Securities and Exchange Commission lawyer privately hired by worried educators, has just published a bombshell 113-page report titled, “Minnesota Mirage: Sleight of Hand.”“The investment returns have been inflated, and the fees grossly underreported to make the pensions appear to be doing better than they really are,” Siedle told The Post.

“This has gone undetected for decades.” As governor, Walz chairs the Minnesota State Retirement System, which manages $146 billion in pension funds for all state employees, including $28.2 billion for teachers.Walz, a former teacher and beneficiary of the pension system, has never owned a stock or bond, he claims on financial disclosures.Teachers in the 20,000-member Facebook group Minnesota Educators for Pension Reform say Walz has “not shown any support whatsoever” for their plea to open the pension fund’s tightly-controlled books. “So far, he has not responded, and I find that disappointing,” said MaggieTemple, who teaches social-studies at a high-school near Minneapolis. “But I also recognize that he has been extremely busy running for vice president.”The group’s GoFundMe campaign raised $75,000 in February to hire Siedle to conduct an independent audit.“If you’re such an advocate of teachers, why have 20,000 educators in your own state lost trust in the pension system you oversee and commissioned an independent review?” Siedle asked of Walz.The Teachers Retirement Association, which administers pensions for 215,000 active and retired teachers, has publicly disclosed less than 10% of an estimated $2.9 billion in fees paid to Wall Street fund manag...