Trial Opens on Alleged Bid to Steer Ohio Teachers’ Pension to Private Firm

Overview

• Testimony began Monday in a Franklin County bench trial before Judge Karen Held Phipps, with opening statements and the first witness on the stand.
• Attorney General Dave Yost’s civil case asks the court to remove board chair Rudy Fichtenbaum and permanently bar him and former member Wade Steen from serving on public pension boards after dropping monetary claims.
• Prosecutors said texts and emails show QED associates ghostwrote materials for Steen and provided questions for him to use in board settings.
• The defense argued that engaging QED was part of an effort to improve returns for the roughly 500,000 active and retired teachers in the $90 billion fund.
• Steen, called as the state’s first witness, faced questions about sharing documents labeled confidential and about alleged favoritism toward QED.