Ohio
‘Shocking’: Dave Yost details secret texts and private emails exchanged at STRS Ohio
A former State Teachers Retirement System board member relentlessly advocated for a firm looking to do business with the pension fund, even after the pension staff rejected the firm, according to new records filed by Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost.
Ten months ago, Yost sued to remove two members of the State Teachers’ Retirement System board, based largely on a memo from an anonymous whistleblower.
In a court filing this week, Yost and his team put more details into the public record and said they found a “shocking” level of covert coordination and communication with a firm looking to do business with the pension fund.
Wade Steen, a now former board member who is one of the targets of Yost’s lawsuit, sought to get at least part of the lawsuit dismissed.
Yost responded with a 16-page memo that accuses Steen of prioritizing secrets over transparency, failing to preserve records, failing to disclose his ties with QED, which sought to do business with STRS, and relentlessly advocating for QED’s proposal.
Steen served on the STRS board as an appointee of Gov. Mike DeWine. In May 2023, DeWine removed Steen and appointed a replacement.
Steen sued to get his seat back and a non-profit organization, Ohio Retirement for Teachers Association, paid the legal bills for Steen and STRS Board Chairman Rudy Fichtenbaum. That arrangement may conflict with state ethics laws.
Ohio Ethics Commission Director Paul Nick said he could not comment on ongoing investigations.
Steen won reinstatement but his term expired in September 2024.
The lawsuit against Steen and Fichtenbaum alleges that they violated their fiduciary duty to the pension system by working behind the scenes for QED, a relatively new investment firm.
Steen and Fichtenbaum have said they were searching for ways to cut pension fund costs and boost investment returns, to benefit retirees and teachers.
In early 2020, QED, formed by former state treasurer officials Seth Metcalf and J.D. Tremmel, pitched STRS board members and staff to partner on an investment opportunity. The strategy called for earmarking up to $65 billion, which could generate a $4 billion return.
In May 2020, STRS managers rejected the deal, in part because QED lacked a track record. In February 2021, the pension fund’s outside consultant, Cliffwater, also rejected the proposal.
The next month, QED told STRS that it no longer wanted to do business with the pension fund. But Steen and Fichtenbaum kept working with QED to advance the proposal, according to Yost. In November 2021, the duo made a presentation to fellow board members on QED’s proposal.
QED aligned with the Ohio Retirement for Teachers Association to help elect new board members who might be more open to the new strategy.
Steen has said in court filings that since he’s already off the STRS board, the lawsuit to remove him is moot. He has said he wants STRS to cut expenses and find investment opportunities that would yield higher returns. STRS staff stymied his efforts to get information to help improve the system.
Last year, Fichtenbaum declined to comment on the lawsuit but said in an online statement: “I have done nothing wrong and will continue to fight for the interests of STRS members.”
What evidence did Yost uncover?
Once STRS Chief Investment Officer Matt Worley rejected the QED pitch, Steen began challenging STRS’s returns, calculations and other data, according to the lawsuit.
At the same time, Steen communicated regularly with Metcalf and Tremmel via texts, personal email accounts and Signal, a private chat system that automatically erases messages. After STRS staff told QED no, these messages were exchanged:
- Sept. 3, 2020: Metcalf tells Steen it’s best to use personal email addresses, not the STRS email accounts.
- Sept. 20, 2020: Metcalf sends the QED business plan to Steen’s personal email.
- Oct. 14 and Nov. 23, 2020: Metcalf ghostwrites emails for Steen.
- Oct. 15, 2020: Metcalf sends Steen instructions during a pension board meeting.
- Nov.13, 2020: Steen asks Metcalf for a list of questions or issues he could raise in the following week.
- Nov. 19, 2020: Metcalf noted he’d email motions for a board member to read at the meeting.
- Dec. 16, 2020: Metcalf sends a memo to Steen’s personal email.
- Jan. 8, 2021: Steen asks Metcalf for input on changing STRS board policies.
- Aug. 16, 2021: Tremmel provides info to Steen and Fichtenbaum for an STRS staff meeting.
- Aug. 15, 2022: Metcalf tells Steen he sent him time-sensitive message via Signal.
- Sept. 6, 2022: Steen seeks to coordinate a consistent message with Metcalf and Tremmel.
- Oct. 19, 2022: Metcalf and Steen talk about exchanging messages and documents via Signal.
While Steen is no longer on the board, Yost wants to permanently block him from returning.
What’s happening at STRS?
The Ohio Retirement for Teachers Association and its allies on the board are pushing for several changes. They want to reinstate regular cost of living adjustments for retirees, cut down on administrative expenses and staff bonuses, dial back on higher-risk investments such as private equity funds, and increase transparency.
The board is made up of five teachers and two retired teachers elected by system members, three investment experts appointed by the governor, state treasurer, Ohio General Assembly and the director of the Department of Education and Workforce.
The board oversees about $95 billion invested on behalf of 500,000 teachers and retirees.
Board members aren’t compensated, and they have a fiduciary duty to act in the best interest of the system. State law allows the attorney general to bring a civil case to remove public pension board members if they violate that duty.
The attorney general is the legal counsel for the pension systems.
Laura Bischoff is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Akron Beacon Journal and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio.
A West Price Hill man is accused of punching an Ohio assistant attorney general after asking her for money, according to arrest documents and officials.
Jermaine Johnson, 50, is charged with misdemeanor assault after Cincinnati police say he punched Kathleen Fischer in the face July 1, according to court records.
Fischer was injured in the attack but was not hospitalized, arrest documents show.
Fischer is a senior assistant attorney general in the consumer protection section of the Ohio Attorney General’s Office. She spent more than a decade as an assistant prosecuting attorney in the Hamilton County Prosecutor’s Office before taking on her new role in 2025.
Fischer is also the daughter of Ohio Supreme Court Justice Pat Fischer, who hails from Fort Thomas.
Arrest documents list Fischer as the victim of the attack. An attorney general’s office spokesman and Hamilton County Prosecutor’s Office spokesman also confirmed Fischer was the victim of the attack.
Fischer told police she was walking on Sycamore Street outside the prosecutor’s office around 4:30 p.m. when she ran into Johnson, arrest documents show. Johnson asked Fischer for money and as she continued to walk away, he punched her in the face, documents state.
A Cincinnati police officer then found Johnson two blocks away shortly after.
Johnson gave police a “conflicting statement” but told officers he may have accidentally hit her.
Johnson is also charged with misdemeanor possession of drug paraphernalia, court records show. Police say they found a glass pipe on Johnson while he was being arrested.
Johnson is expected to be arraigned in Hamilton County Municipal Court at 12:30 p.m., according to court records. He remains in custody at the Hamilton County Justice Center.
This report will be updated.
Enquirer reporter Matthew Cupelli contributed.
Ohio is shaping up to be a top battleground state this year, and MS NOW’s election team now characterizes its Senate race as a Toss Up.
We are updating the race based primarily on multiple high-quality polls showing a very tight contest, as well as the candidates running and the broader political environment.
The contest is technically a special election to fill out the remainder of Vice President JD Vance’s term. Republican Jon Husted, who was appointed to the seat after Vance took office in 2025, is running to defend it for the first time.
The candidates and structural forces
While Ohio is still often thought of as a bellwether state, it has voted reliably Republican in recent presidential elections. The state has shifted to the right during President Donald Trump’s political rise, backing him in all three of his presidential campaigns.
Ohio’s last few Senate races, however, have been more competitive. Vance won by six points in 2022, while Republican Bernie Moreno beat Democrat Sherrod Brown by less than four points in 2024, narrowly ousting Brown from office after he served three terms in the Senate.
Brown’s showing two years ago is more impressive than it might seem at first blush. A relatively well-liked senator with working-class appeal, he was likely dragged down by his party’s brand. He came close to hanging onto his seat in an unfavorable environment for Democrats. That four-point loss meant he ran ahead of Kamala Harris, who lost to Trump by 11 points.
And 2026 looks to be a much better environment for Democrats.
Trump’s approval rating and the GOP’s favorability ratings are underwater amid an unpopular war and widespread economic dissatisfaction. Brown is running again, and polls indicate he has a real shot at flipping the seat.
The polls
No single poll should be viewed as definitive, but a clear pattern has emerged in recent weeks. A Fox News poll made waves four weeks ago, showing Brown with a lead outside the poll’s margin of sampling error. Since then, two more high-quality polls have shown a very competitive race: one commissioned by AARP and fielded by a bipartisan team of pollsters, and the other released this week by the New York Times and Siena College. Both show a three-point race, which is well within the margin of error, and they differ on which candidate is ahead. This is what polling in a true toss-up race looks like.
HAMDEN, Ohio (AP) — The 16 children found living in “deplorable” conditions inside a small, dilapidated rural Ohio home are part of the same family, officials said Wednesday.
Authorities arrested four adults Tuesday on felony child endangerment charges after finding the children in the home. Some were in dire need of medical treatment, authorities said.
Vinton County prosecuting attorney William Archer said the four adults were charged with second-degree felony child endangering because it involves “serious physical harm.”
Gary Siders Jr., Gary Siders Sr., Christina Siders and Elizabeth Siders appeared in court Wednesday where a judge entered not guilty pleas on their behalf.. They have not yet been assigned lawyers.
Ohio Attorney General Andy Wilson said Wednesday that the conditions inside the house in the tiny village of Hamden were almost indescribable, saying it “really looked third world.”
“It’s just almost beyond comprehension,” he said without providing details about what was inside.
It appeared that the children spent most of their time in just one room for much of the four years they lived there, Wilson said.
The house sits on a road tucked away alongside a steep railroad embankment, where tracks carry rumbling trains through Hamden. On Wednesday, its doors and windows stood open to the 94-degree Fahrenheit (34-degree Celsius) heat. A tangle of discarded children’s items — two busted bicycles, a plastic play table, a beach pail and two infant carriers — stood in a pile in the yard.
The Ohio Bureau of Investigation and local sheriff’s department searched the home on Tuesday.
The children ranged in age from 1 1/2 years to 18 years old and included both boys and girls, officials said. Seven were transported to hospitals in Columbus and two were flown by helicopters.
Hamden has a population of less than 1,000 people and is about 60 miles (97 kilometers) southeast of Columbus.
___
Seewer reported from Toledo, Ohio.
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