Deals and People January 7, 2001

Connecticut State CIO Disputes Dismissal

January 7, 2001 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Former chief investment officer Tom Flanigan last week lashed out at the state treasurer who had abruptly fired him on December 12, according to The Hartford Courant.

Reported by

John van Rosendaal

It was the latest episode in the continuing saga of the State of Connecticut pension fund.

State Treasurer Denise Nappier fired him because he was standing in the way of opportunities for Nappier’s ‘friends and contacts’ to make money by managing fund assets, Flanigan wrote in a letter to the Investment Advisory Council that monitors the Treasurer’s office. Flanigan did not name Nappier’s friends in the letter, which was cited in the newspaper.

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The State Treasurer’s office strongly denied the accusations. “These wild allegations about the treasurer acting on behalf of friends and contacts [are] unsubstantiated” and are “not found in any document or any exchange – other than the fantasies that this letter represents,” deputy treasurer Howard Rifkin told The Hartford Courant. He said Nappier would seek a retraction.

When Nappier fired Flanigan, she cited differences over his approach to “communications and administrative process” in managing the $22 billion state employee pension fund.

The public conflict lays bare the continued troubles of the Connecticut state fund, which Nappier and Flanigan were supposed to reform in the wake of the bribery-and-kickback scandal surrounding Nappier’s predecessor, Paul Silvester.