Yesterday, the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation (APFC) Board of Trustees held an emergency special meeting to discuss the leak of emails to the Alaska Landmine.
The emails obtained by the Landmine showed that Trustee Ellie Rubenstein had set up meetings with Permanent Fund staff and her billionaire father David Rubenstein, as well as money managers who are investors in her own private equity fund.
After the public portion of the meeting, the board voted 4-2 to go into executive session to discuss the leak. Interestingly, Board Chair Ethan Schutt, along with Trustee Craig Richards, voted not to take up the matter in executive session. Trustees Adam Crum, Jason Brune, Ryan Anderson, and Ellie Rubenstein voted to go into executive session. Four votes are required on the board for a majority.
During the public portion of the meeting, Crum and Brune defended Rubenstein. But Richards, without naming Rubenstein directly, was critical of her interactions with staff as well as her attempts to directly engage money managers on behalf of APFC. The discussion and vote for executive session demonstrated a clear divide on the board.
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The meeting was held virtually on Webex. The executive session portion of the meeting was supposed to only include board members and some staff, but for unknown reasons members of the public were able to attend. This allowed members of the public to observe what should have been a closed executive session. This was akin to a door being left open in the Capitol during an executive session of a committee, allowing anyone outside to listen in.
A member of the public who attended the entire two and a half hour executive session provided extensive notes to the Landmine. The source also provided multiple screenshots of the executive session, proving that they were able to attend. We have redacted their name to protect their identity.
Rubenstein, who remained quiet during the public portion of the meeting, became animated during executive session, according to the notes.
The notes suggest a high degree of palace intrigue within the Permanent Fund board and staff. For example, at one point APFC CEO Deven Mitchell and Scott Balovich, the head of IT for the APFC, were asked to leave the executive session at the request of Rubenstein, according to the notes.
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After Mitchell and Balovich left, Rubenstein said she was surprised that they had not been more concerned about forwarding APFC emails to personal email accounts. Richards then weighed in, saying that staff are “covering their ass” by documenting things. Richards also said he was more concerned about employees feeling uncomfortable than about the leak itself, according to the notes.
Mitchell and Balovich leaving meeting. The other man is a lawyer with the Dept. of Law
There was discussion about the original Landmine story, and speculation about which staff could have been the source of the leak, according to the notes. There was also discussion about a possible external investigation into the leak. Oddly, the notes do not indicate any substantive discussion about the content of the leaked emails. Instead, the meeting was intensely focused on identifying the source of the leak.
According to the notes, Brune and Crum seem to think CEO Deven Mitchell was the source of the leak. Rubenstein then voiced concern about staff writing unsecure memos. She then asked Richards for his opinion, and mentioned that they had gone out of their way to not put their suspicions about Mitchell in writing, according to the notes.
Crum and Rubenstein then both voiced concerns about staff, according to the notes. Crum said that he no longer wants to have one on one meetings with staff. Rubenstein then stated she has issues with the CIO, Marcus Frampton, and does not trust him to handle private equity.
Earlier in the executive session, the notes stated Rubenstein expressed frustration that some staff may have transferred APFC emails to private email accounts. Extensive discussion followed regarding IT policies about emails, according to the notes. Rubenstein mentioned that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) does not allow forwarding emails to private accounts, and accused Frampton of having done so.
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Brune referenced an email he sent to Mitchell with a list of questions about the source of the leak, according to the notes. Mitchell said he asked all the staff who received emails if they were the source of the leak. They all said no.
Rubenstein then asked if “Rachel” was the source of the leak. It’s unclear who Rachel is, but Balovich responded that she did not show up on the Exchange system, according to the notes.
The notes also stated that Anderson asked whether possessing the leaked emails was a crime. Mitchell said that that was Rubenstein’s concern as well. But Mitchell indicated that he felt possession of the leaked emails itself was not a crime, but that the release of the emails may have been a crime, according to the notes. Mitchell also said he hoped there was not someone in the organization trying to undermine it.
The notes stated that Rubenstein expressed concern about staff making “unchecked allegations.” She went on state that there had been no head of private equity for nine months, and that Frampton had worked to undo relationships. She said it was “baseless” to conclude that she had pressured Frampton into investing Permanent Fund money into companies she’s connected with. She also said she had no idea a Permanent Fund staffer had met with Carlyle, according to the notes. Schutt then weighed in, saying that she was straying from the executive session topic.
The notes state there was extensive discussion about whether to issue a statement that the board had conducted an investigation into the leak. Mitchell pushed back, stating that that an IT review had been done, not an investigation.
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Rubenstein asked if there was a way to check if personal cell phones had been used to forward emails, and added that it appeared someone had taken photos of the emails, according to the notes.
Brune asked if a search had been done to see if anyone “was stupid enough” to email Jeff Landfield. Balovich said it had not been done, but they could, according to the notes.
Brune also seemed to want to look at who has cultivated relationships with Jeff Landfield, according to the notes.
Yesterday, the APFC issued a statement that they were aware the public had been able to access their executive session.
The first Jesuit missionaries in Alaska sailed up the Yukon River in 1887. By the turn of the 20th century, the religious order of the Catholic Church had as many as 50 Jesuits in the state.
Now, only two remain. And by the end of June, there will be none.
The Jesuits’ nearly 140 years in the state was honored at an event at Bethel’s Immaculate Conception Church on June 16. A procession of priests wearing long white gowns with red hems walked down the aisle to open the event. The Bishop of the Diocese of Fairbanks, Stephen Maekawa, thumped the ground with a shimmering silver staff known as a clozier as he approached the altar.
Bishop of the Diocese of Fairbanks, Steven Maekawa, walks toward the altar at the Immaculate Conception Church in Bethel.
“My brothers and sisters, we gather together to celebrate this wonderful and blessed occasion to acknowledge the love of God and the work of God through the 139 year mission of the Society of Jesus of the Jesuit fathers,” Maekawa said to open the event.
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A traditional Catholic mass followed, with readings in both English and Yup’ik. During the sermon, Maekawa acknowledged the vastness of the Fairbanks diocese, and the tremendous amount of work done by the Jesuits to establish it.
“All of the 46 churches of the Diocese of Fairbanks that we currently have were established by either the Jesuit fathers or by direction of a Jesuit bishop,” Maekawa said. “We have a long history of the Society of Jesus’ presence and ministry here in all of Alaska.”
The Jesuits are an order within the Catholic Church, akin to the Dominicans or Franciscans. They have a reputation for taking on some of the Catholic Church’s most remote assignments.
That missionary spirit brought the Jesuits to the Yukon River in 1887, where they built churches, schools, and ministries. Without their work, Catholicism may not have taken root in huge swaths of Alaska, particularly among Alaska Native communities.
The Immaculate Conception Church in Bethel.
But the Jesuits leave a complicated legacy. Their methods of converting Native people to the religion, particularly in the first half of the 20th century, created generational traumas still felt to this day.
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Fr. Sean Carroll is the provincial of the Jesuits West Province, which oversees Alaska and nine other states.
Fr. Sean Carroll, provincial of the Jesuits West Province, speaks at an event recognizing nearly 140 years of Jesuit service in Alaska.
“Thank you for all that you have taught us about who Jesus is and how to love and serve Him wholeheartedly,” Carroll said. “I also thank you for your patience with us. For there have been times when we have sinned and when we have hurt you.”
Missionaries, including the Jesuits, forcefully converted and assimilated Alaska Native people into Western culture and religion. Students at Jesuit-run boarding schools were forced to abandon their Native languages and physically punished when caught speaking languages other than English. Native dancing and drumming were also banned.
The Jesuits West Province maintains a list of 150 Jesuits with credible claims of sexual abuse against minors or vulnerable adults. A quarter of the accused Jesuits served in Alaska at some point in time.
“I ask for your forgiveness for all that we have done that was not rooted in Christ and love for Him, and for when we did not value your culture nor recognize the presence of God in you,” Carroll said.
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Carroll gave the order to withdraw from the state last spring. A big issue was the recruitment of Jesuits willing to travel and serve in remote villages. He told the congregation that the Jesuits’ work would continue, just without a permanent presence.
Fr. Rich Magner, one of the two remaining Jesuit priests in Alaska, attends a ceremony in Bethel.
Fr. Rich Magner is one of the two remaining Jesuit priests in Alaska. His last day serving Chevak, Hooper Bay, and Scammon Bay is June 30.
“We all always knew coming in, or should have known, that we’re not going to be here forever. It’s going to be mission accomplished at some point,” Magner said. “And then we hand it off to the diocese that we’ve helped create, and so that’s a good feeling.”
Magner’s next stop is a Clinical Pastoral Education residency in Tacoma, Washington.
The other remaining priest, Fr. Tom Provinsal, first came to Alaska in 1968 to teach. A fond memory, he said, was meeting Elders that practiced traditional subsistence lifestyles.
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“Some of the grandmothers, their fingers were just all bent with arthritis and stuff like that, you know, their whole lives they’ve been working out in the cold and the wet, doing food, sewing, all that kind of stuff,” Provinsal said. “I’d say I just feel very privileged to have come when I did come and to see that.”
Provinsal returned in 1975 as a priest and has served in the region ever since. After moving away, he plans to take a five month sabbatical. What happens next, he said, is in God’s hands.
Two lines formed in the aisle for communion at the end of the mass. After taking communion, Bethel’s Parish Administrator Susan Murphy gave a final thank you.
“It’s difficult to say goodbye to people who have been a part of our lives for so long,” Murphy said. “We know that you have done what was yours to do, and have taught us to do what is ours to do. We are grateful.”
Jesuit priests form a row along the altar of Bethel’s Immaculate Conception Church as members of the congregation lift their arms and pray.
Dominic Hunt, a Yup’ik deacon that flew in from Emmonak for the event, led the congregation through a final prayer.
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“Bless them with your wisdom, that they may be a word of hope, a world in need. We ask this through Christ, our Lord. Amen,” Hunt said.
About 70 people posed for a photo on the altar – priests, deacons, parishioners, Elders and children — many of them smiling, some standing quietly.
The photo doesn’t tell the whole story. But it’s a moment when gratitude, grief, and memory all shared the same room.
Bishop of the Diocese of Fairbanks, Steven Maekawa, stands in the middle of a crowd waiting to take a photo at Bethel’s Immaculate Conception Church.
JUNEAU, Alaska (KTUU) – The Supreme Court of Alaska will be taking up the case of the State of Alaska, Division of Elections v. Daniel J. Sullivan, Jr.
The oral arguments will be held Monday at 10 a.m. via Zoom, according to an order and opening notice.
The document also specifies that a decision is expected to be made before noon on Tuesday.
According to documents from the Division of Elections, the state must start printing ballots at noon on the same day.
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This comes after an Anchorage Superior Court Judge ordered Dan J. Sullivan on to the ballot Friday.
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