Illinois’s scandals always catch my eye. Consider this report from Adam Andrzejewski at RealClearPolicy:
In 2020, Gov. JB Pritzker’s trust bought stock in the health insurance company Centene Corp. That same year, Illinois gave $2.6 billion worth of Medicaid contracts to Centene Corp.
An investigation by the Better Government Association, a nonprofit Illinois watchdog, uncovered these interesting investments. Even though Pritzker’s investments are in a blind trust, which means that Pritzker is not privy to investment decisions, they demonstrate why blind trusts can’t prevent conflicts of interest.
Each year, Pritzker receives a copy of his current investments from his fund managers, which have the potential to influence the state contracting process.
Intentional or not, legal or not, this is still a corrupt practice. Gov. Pritzker, pursuant to his campaign pledge not to invest in companies that did business with the state, should have conveyed that directive to his trust managers.
How corrupt is Illinois? When the reformers engage in corrupt practices despite campaign promises, what can one say?
“Intentional or not, legal or not, this is still a corrupt practice. Gov. Pritzker, pursuant to his campaign pledge not to invest in companies that did business with the state, should have conveyed that directive to his trust managers.”
In my business we have an SEC mandated affirmative obligation to develop a “no buy” list (based upon the lines of business in our portfolio) and relay that to trust managers and family members. As absurd as it is that the relatively dinky companies we buy have any relationship with publicly traded companies, we still have to abide by this practice.
BTW – who are these “reformers” of which you speak.