Sen. Bob Casey oversaw $31M Pa. pension funding in China-linked agency

Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) supervised a probably dangerous funding of greater than $31 million from state employee pensions right into a Chinese language government-backed agency — that has since been deemed a menace to the US — whereas he served because the commonwealth’s treasurer.

As custodian of the Pennsylvania State Staff’ Retirement System, Casey sorted the funding of $31,386,930 in China Cell Ltd. — one of many largest international belongings held by the state on the time.

Casey, 62, who’s operating subsequent yr for a fourth time period within the US Senate, helped develop the substantial Chinese language investments in 2006, in keeping with a contemporary financial report on the fund from 2007.

A report covering the previous year, 2005, doesn’t record China Cell as one of many fund’s largest holdings, nor does one for the year before that — although the degrees of many different investments remained unchanged.

The state report for 2007 additionally doesn’t present China Cell among the fund’s largest assets, regardless of the extent of funding having almost doubled from 2005 to 2006.

China Cell has since been designated a nationwide safety menace, with the Division of Protection in June 2020 noting the corporate was a part of the Chinese language Communist Celebration’s “military-civil fusion nationwide technique.”

The New York Inventory Alternate delisted China Cell in January 2021 following the Pentagon’s designation.

President Biden, in a June 2021 executive order, additional demanded US shareholders divest from the corporate, citing China Cell as certainly one of many threats “posed by the military-industrial complicated of the Individuals’s Republic of China.”

The Federal Communications Fee additionally deemed China Mobile a threat to national security in March 2022.

Based in Hong Kong on Sept. 3, 1997 — weeks after the territory was handed over to Beijing by the UK — China Cell is owned by China Cell Communications Corp., which is a subsidiary of the Individuals’s Republic of China.

The China Cell belongings had been certainly one of many profitable holdings Casey oversaw when he served as state treasurer from 2005 to 2007, investing a lot of Pennsylvania taxpayers’ cash in worldwide fairness.

The holdings in China Cell had been agreed to by Casey because the fund’s custodian in addition to 10 different board members of the Pennsylvania State Staff’ Retirement System, together with former Pennsylvania Home members Nicholas J. Maiale, Michael F. Gerber, and Robert W. Godshall; and former Pennsylvania state senators Gibson E. Armstrong, Raphael J. Musto, and M. Joseph Rocks.

A spokeswoman for Casey’s workplace advised The Submit Monday that the senator shouldn’t be held accountable for the funding.

“This story is a false assault — the funding in query was made earlier than Bob Casey turned State Treasurer in 2005,” she mentioned.

“Nobody is harder on China than Senator Casey. Throughout his time within the Senate, he has fought to crack down on China’s foreign money manipulation, and towards unfair commerce practices and US firms that put money into China on the expense of American staff,” she added.

The spokesperson didn’t reply to a follow-up query about whether or not Casey permitted additional investments in China Cell in 2006.

Casey has touted his expertise dealing with the Pennsylvania state worker retirement fund, each as treasurer and in his eight years because the commonwealth’s auditor common.

“As Auditor Common and State Treasurer of Pennsylvania, I took a selected curiosity within the two state public pension funds, for lecturers and public workers, that are conventional outlined profit plans,” Casey mentioned in a July 2008 press release.

“As Auditor Common, I audited each funds and as State Treasurer, I served as a trustee for each funds. It gave me an perception into the advantages of well-run outlined profit plans, each to retirees and to our economic system as a complete,” he added.

Moreover, Pennsylvania’s pension fund paid $15,315 to the state-owned Financial institution of China for buying and selling dealer commissions under Casey in 2006.

Most state workers are required by regulation to enroll within the Pennsylvania State Staff’ Retirement Code, which handles advantages for round 240,000 workers and retirees, according to its website.

Staff acquire a lifetime pension after contributing roughly 6% to the fund for at least 5 years, or at the least 10 years in the event that they had been employed after Dec. 31, 2009.

Casey was succeeded as state treasurer by Robin Wiessmann, whom Biden selected final April to serve on the board of Amtrak.

Wiessmann is listed as state treasurer on the monetary report for 2006, for the reason that doc was finalized in June 2007, six months after Casey was sworn in as a senator.

Casey’s monetary ties have drawn scrutiny from ethics watchdogs in current weeks, after The Submit revealed his campaigns have paid more than $500,000 to a printing company owned by his sister and brother-in-law.

In the meantime, as Congress weighs a ban on TikTok over nationwide safety considerations, Casey is without doubt one of the few federal lawmakers with an account on the Chinese-controlled social media app.