Detroit Retirement Systems assists Michigan State Police in criminal investigation

The City of Detroit Retirement System has announced that it is actively assisting the Michigan State Police in a criminal investigation related to the actions of a former employee who was taken into custody on Wednesday, July 24.

The former employee, whose name was not disclosed, worked for the combined Police and Fire Retirement System and the General Retirement System. The individual was the target of an MSP investigation after other law enforcement agencies began investigating as part of an unrelated criminal investigation.

The former employee is alleged to have transferred payments to payment cards (prepaid credit/debit cards) issued by the pension scheme to a small number of pensioners without bank accounts. When RSCD learned of the investigation, the company immediately took action to prevent further fraudulent or illegal activities.

The extent of the card theft is currently under investigation but could be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. The criminal investigation is ongoing and RSCD officials have been asked by MSP not to comment further in light of the ongoing investigation.

The MSP contacted the RSCD on July 3 to alert the system to possible fraud and request assistance in the ongoing investigation. The MSP also executed a search warrant for certain RSCD records.

RSCD management states that it provided documents and cooperated fully with the MSP and complied with requests to discuss the investigation only with those who needed to know for the purposes of their preliminary investigation.

The General Retirement System (GRSD) and the Police and Fire Retirement System (PFRS) are separate entities that share staff and offices to reduce overhead costs and streamline operations.

The GRS Board of Directors consists of a 10-member Board of Trustees. The Board consists of five elected active members, one elected retired member, one member appointed by the City Council, one member appointed by the Municipality, and two ex officio members appointed by the duly elected Mayor.

The board manages the $1.7 billion fund, which serves approximately 11,000 retired and approximately 5,000 active members.

A public meeting of the GRSD takes place once a month on the third Wednesday at 10 a.m. Minutes and meeting reports are published on the GRSD page of the RSCD website at RSCD.org.

The PFRS Board currently consists of a 16-member Board of Trustees. The Board includes six elected active police officers and firefighters (three each); and two elected retired individuals (one each from the police and fire departments); one City Council appointee and seven ex officio City of Detroit appointees appointed by the duly elected Mayor.

The board manages the $2.7 billion fund, which supports approximately 8,000 retired police officers and firefighters and about 3,000 active first responders.

Public meetings of the PFRS are held twice a month, on Thursdays at 9 a.m. Minutes and meeting records are posted on the PFRS page of the RSCD website at RSCD.org.