By Chris Tobe | The CommonSense 401k Project
Ohio needs an attorney general willing to investigate the financial establishment that has grown comfortable operating behind pension secrecy, political connections and public subsidies. That is why I support John Kulewicz over Keith Faber.
Kulewicz offers an opportunity to change direction. Faber’s record as auditor gives me little confidence that he would deliver the independent scrutiny Ohio teachers, retirees and taxpayers deserve. Faber has taken large amounts of money from Epstein and data center-related donors.
The next attorney general should bring transparency to three overlapping subjects: public-pension investments, financial relationships involving Jeffrey Epstein’s wealthy associates, and the money behind Ohio’s data-center boom. Each involves powerful interests. Each requires someone willing to follow public money wherever the records lead. The AG plays a major role as Ohio STRS legal advisor.
Faber’s STRS audit was a whitewash in its practical effect
In December 2022, Faber announced that his special audit of the State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio found no evidence of fraud, illegal acts or data manipulation within its limited review. His office broadly reassured the public about the system’s controls and oversight.
I regard that as a whitewash in its practical effect: reassurance for the institution, insufficient accountability for the people paying its bills.
Faber did vaguely discuss investment fees, benchmarks, bonuses and secrecy. He weakly suggested reconsidering bonus arrangements and removing trade-secret protections. He did no real analysis that would lead to any real accountability or transparency a victory for the Epstein class.
Teachers needed a clear accounting of every layer of investment expense, a rigorous test of compensation against independently measured performance, and public access to the contracts governing their retirement money. They deserved more than recommendations that other officials debate whether the system should improve.
The scale is visible even in STRS’s own financial reporting. For fiscal 2023, STRS reported approximately $256 million in external asset-management fees, including approximately $181 million for alternative investments. Its notes explain that carried interest and certain other fund expenses appear within investment appreciation rather than that management-fee total. The headline fee number therefore does not tell the whole cost story. Faber helped enable and hide hundreds of other $millions in fees to Epstein-linked firms like Apollo and others.
An aggressive watchdog would make that distinction understandable to every teacher.
Yost pursued the reformers. Who investigates the establishment?
Under Republican Attorney General Dave Yost, Ohio pursued the removal of transparency advocates Wade Steen and Rudy Fichtenbaum over their dealings with a non-existent firm QED who receive $0 while ignoring hundreds of millions of hidden investment fees in secret no-bid contracts to Epstein linked firms like Apollo.
The corrupt AG Yost backed by corrupt Auditor Faber focused on a $0 issue while looking the other way at millions in excessive bonuses and hundred in excessive fees to Epstein class Wall Street firms.
Pension staff Compensation
Faber whitewashed the excessive compensation for public employees at the Ohio State Teachers Retirement Systems.
4 employees earned over $600,000.
20 employees earned over $400,000.
49 employees earned over $300,000.
85 employees earned over $200,000
STRSsalaries2024.csv
By comparison, the average Ohio teacher earns $68,000, with many retirees living on less than $45,000 per year — without a COLA.
A researcher from the conservative Heritage Foundation even found this excessive.
Epstein scrutiny must extend to pension relationships
Ohio’s Epstein discussion cannot stop with Les Wexner. Signal reported that Les Wexner directly gave Faber $15,000 in 2025.
Faber has received money from major Epstein banker JP Morgan.
My reporting has repeatedly raised questions about Apollo, its former leader Leon Black and Ohio public-pension business.
The Republican Attorney General’s Association RAGA is actively supporting Faber hrough Safer Ohio Fund, and its funding includes major banks and and a number of Apollo-controlled business (U.of Phoenix, ADT).
Data centers need a public-money investigation
Ohio’s data-center boom demands equally serious scrutiny. Tax exemptions, local abatements, infrastructure commitments, water arrangements and electricity costs all deserve public accounting. https://commonsense401kproject.com/2026/08/23/ohio-should-already-have-a-data-center-watchdog-but-auditor-keith-faber-is-being-a-lapdog/
RAGA is actively supporting Faber through Safer Ohio Fund and they are well funded by Data Centers in the Millions.
| Contributor | Combined receipts | Relationship to the issue |
| Dominion Energy | $1,100,000 | Electricity supplier serving major data-center territory |
| Amazon.com Services | $305,000 | Cloud/data-center operator |
| $300,000 | Cloud/data-center operator | |
| Anthropic | $300,000 | AI developer and computing customer |
| OpenAI | $225,000 | AI developer and computing customer |
| Meta Platforms | $200,000 | Data-center operator |
| Microsoft | $50,000 | Cloud/data-center operator |
| Oracle | $50,000 | Cloud/data-center operator |
| American Electric Power Service Corp. | $50,000 | Electric utility |
| Vistra Corporate Services | $50,000 | Power producer |
| Duke Energy | $25,000 | Electric utility |
| Selected total | $2,655,000 |
The Center for Media and Democracy’s July investigation identified $250,000 each from Google, Anthropic and Dominion in the second quarter of 2026.
My August call for a data-center watchdog asked for something basic: identify the owners, disclose the public assistance, compare promises with results and determine who bears the risk.
Public pensions may also invest through managers active in digital infrastructure. That overlap requires a look through the investment structures; it does not prove that a particular pension dollar financed a particular Ohio facility.
The next attorney general should coordinate lawful investigations with auditors and regulators, scrutinize conflicts and misrepresentations, and pursue recovery where the evidence and law support it. Ohio also needs a searchable public record of these deals and legislation closing unjustified disclosure gaps.
Support Kulewicz—and demand a reform agenda
Kulewicz explicitly campaigns on confronting corrupt politicians and restoring transparency and accountability. His decades of litigation experience give him a credible foundation for that work.
I am endorsing him as the better opportunity for change, while asking him to make that promise concrete: independent pension-performance review; full investment-cost disclosure; scrutiny of compensation and consultant conflicts; examination of Epstein-linked financial relationships; and coordinated accountability for publicly supported data-center deals.
Ohio has had enough institutional reassurance. Teachers and taxpayers deserve answers about who receives their money, who benefits from secrecy and who is responsible when the public gets a bad deal.
John Kulewicz should be Ohio’s next attorney general. Then Ohioans should hold him to the standard Faber has failed to meet: follow the money, open the records and serve the public—even when the questions make powerful people uncomfortable.
Sources and related reporting
- Faber’s December 2022 STRS audit announcement
- STRS financial statements and fee disclosures, fiscal 2023
- Kulewicz’s campaign platform
- Faber’s SFOF membership announcement, May 26, 2026
- Watchdog’s May 14, 2026 request concerning Metcalf
- Watchdog’s 2024 SEC investigation request
- Court ruling on STRS trustees, February 2026
- Ohio’s Epstein election: pensions and data centers
- Ohio should already have a data-center watchdog
- STRS, Metcalf and SFOF
- Epstein, Apollo and Ohio teachers’ billions
- STRS performance numbers and bonuses
- STRS’s response to performance questions
- The pension compensation consultant
