Last week, the AG removed pension trustees critical of Apollo and other Private Equity managers
While Columbus debates Leslie Wexner’s legacy, another Epstein-related name sits quietly in the background of Ohio’s teacher pension system: Apollo Global Management.
And behind Apollo’s global brand stands the uncomfortable reality that its former CEO Leon Black paid Jeffrey Epstein more than $150 million — much of it after Epstein’s 2008 conviction. The Epstein file release last week contained hundreds of references to Leon Black and, most importantly to current Apollo CEO Marc Rowan and the corporation overall. These new revelations have led to National teacher unions calling for an SEC investigation of Apollo. http://www.aft.org/sites/default/files/media/documents/2026/Letter_to_SEC_re_Apollo_Global_Management_February_17_2026.pdf Also, school parents around the country have become alarmed by Apollo-owned LifeTouch having access to millions of child photos.
In June 2021, the Ohio Retired Teachers Association commissioned a forensic review of STRS Ohio titled “The High Cost of Secrecy.” The findings were explosive: https://www.orta.org/forensic-audit. The Bloomberg story on the STRS report specifically highlights Apollo https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-06-03/private-equity-slammed-by-retirees-in-ohio-pension-fund-report
• Alternative investments underperformed transparent benchmarks by approximately $8.6 billion.
• STRS was paying more than $420 million per year in hidden, unreported fees to alternative managers.
• Many of those alternative allocations included firms like Apollo — firms operating through opaque, no-bid private contracts shielded from public view.
And what happened next? Instead of a full-scale state investigation into the fee structure and underperformance, Ohio’s political system moved aggressively against trustees aligned with transparency — including Rudy Fichtenbaum and Wade Steen — who were ultimately removed from the STRS board after legal action involving the Ohio Attorney General’s office. Fichtenbaum and Steen were doing their fiduciary duty by bringing up the alternative losses in the Forensic Review. Fichtenbaum has been a leader for the Ohio Association of University Professors, whose national AAUP was one of the unions filing the SEC complaint on Apollo. STRS staff and the AG’s office shifted the narrative with the help of the media to focus on an investment concept QED, the trustees mentioned as a concept, and $0 invested and $0 in fees. QED was a bait and switch to take attention away from billions in alternative underperformance and hundreds of millions in hidden excessive fees paid to alternative managers including Apollo.
Meanwhile, Ohio’s paper of record operates inside the Gannett newspaper chain, whose consolidation was heavily financed by Apollo debt. Conflict of interest does not require a phone call. It requires a capital structure. If your pension coverage comes from a media chain financially intertwined with the very private equity ecosystem under scrutiny, the public deserves disclosure every time Apollo’s name appears or should appear in this case.
And here is the uncomfortable symmetry:
• Epstein’s network intersected with elite finance.
• Apollo leadership is tied to Epstein through documented payments and relationships.
• Apollo is a manager inside Ohio’s teacher pension alternative portfolio.
• Ohio trustees pushing for exposure of alternative fee leakage are removed.
• Media financially linked to Apollo ignores Forensic Audit findings that shed Apollo and other alternative managers in a negative light.
The Epstein story is not just about who flew where, who was with whom, as Ohioans are seeing with Les Wexner and Ohio State. It is about how elite finance networks protect themselves. When billions in teacher retirement wealth flow through private equity vehicles connected to executives who appear in Epstein files, and when those billions are shielded by complexity, and when trustees demanding disclosure are removed rather than supported, the question becomes unavoidable: Is STRS protecting teachers — or protecting the alternative investment industry? Ohio educators do not need press releases.
They need answers: Full disclosure of every Apollo vehicle held by STRS. Explanation on why Apollo misled Public Pensions on the extent of their Epstein involvement in 2019. Total management fees, carried interest, and transaction fees paid since 2008. Benchmark comparisons versus low-cost public alternatives.
Written explanations for any underperformance relative to passive strategies.
Until that happens, the Epstein shadow will not leave this story — because the issue is not a salacious scandal. It is power. And $8.6 billion of Ohio teachers’ and taxpayers’ losses deserves more than silence.
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The CommonSense 401k Project 