The staff at the Teachers' Retirement System was awfully accommodating to people seeking business with it, a former TRS lawyer just testified.
Steve Loren recalled attending a meeting in which TRS Executive Director Jon Bauman met with Loren, Stuart Levine ( a board member) and William Cellini.
Cellini, a powerful Springfield Republican, was a real estate manager for TRS and had been invited to the meeting to discuss his own allocation from TRS.
"I was somewhat surprised," Loren said.
"Probably it was a violation of the state ethics act," Loren said. "It just didn’t seem to be an appropriate meeting for Bill to participate in."
At one point, Cellini working through a deal with Levine, allegedly said he was going to need more money for his fund, Commonwealth. It had been slotted to get $50 million.
Loren said he saw Bauman put a line through Cellini's allocation and change the amount, he testified.
At the subsequent TRS board meeting, Cellini's Commonwealth didn't receive the $50 million worth of teacher pension funds it was slotted to receive.
It got $100 million.
Wow...Must be nice...Until the feds hit the door.
"$50 Million here and $50 Million there- pretty soon we might be talkin' about some serious money!"
Consider the source. Loren will say anything to save his scrawny neck. So Steve, how much did you steal in legal fees from these real estate companies?