Campaign Updates
Milestones and progress in the Arkansans for Retirement Transparency investigation.
Follow the progress of our investigation and campaign.
2026
March 25 — Analyzed publicly-posted APERS Board Packet for June 11, 2025 (88 pages). Key finding: the same board meetings that produced 37 pages of Callan quarterly analysis and detailed institutional presentations for infrastructure and private credit investments contained zero pages of analysis for the $25–50 million Israel Bonds authorization. Filed FOIA Round 3 requests to ASHERS (Arkansas State Highway Employees’ Retirement System) and LOPFI (Local Police and Fire Retirement System), expanding the investigation to two previously uninvestigated pension systems. Sent first wave of interstate outreach to researchers and journalists in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Florida, Minnesota, and North Carolina investigating similar Israel Bonds patterns.
March 24 — Completed Auditor Round 2 processing. All four agencies’ FOIA responses now fully ingested. Final corpus: 1,222 total documents across 4 agencies (1,039 active after deduplication). Registry passes validation with zero critical findings.
March 17 — Spotlight PA publishes investigation into Pennsylvania Treasurer’s Israel Bonds purchases and ethics concerns — independent journalists in another state asking the same fiduciary questions our FOIA investigation has documented in Arkansas. Read the Spotlight PA report.
March 3 — Auditor of State delivers Round 2 FOIA response — 124 documents from three custodians (Dennis Milligan, Jason Brady, Wendy Spadoni) received via flash drive from General Counsel TJ Fowler. Documents cover the Auditor’s coordination of the April 2025 Israel Bonds pitch tour, internal communications, and SFOF-related materials.
March 1 — Completed assessment of APERS and ATRS Round 2 FOIA responses. Key findings: Brady-as-conduit confirmed with direct quotes; APERS purchase timeline reconstructed; ATRS investment management structure documented.
February 27 — APERS delivered Round 2 FOIA response — 16 documents including an 8,648-page comprehensive production containing the agency’s Israel Bonds records.
February 20 — FOIA Round 2 Treasury response fully ingested — 118 new documents added to the investigation.
February 19 — Website launched; investigation corpus has grown to more than 1,100 public records across two FOIA rounds.
February 5 — FOIA Round 2 requests submitted to all four agencies: Treasury, ATRS, APERS, and Auditor of State.
2025
October — FOIA Round 1 responses received from all four Arkansas agencies. Initial analysis begins.
August — First round of FOIA requests filed with Arkansas Treasury, ATRS, APERS, and Auditor of State.
Spring — Investigation formally launched. Campaign infrastructure development begins.