Florida Investment Agency and Charities Mislead

by Alexandra Andrews
ProPublica, May 4, 2009, 11:50 a.m.

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Here are our editors’ picks from today’s roundup of investigative stories around the Web. Was there a story we missed? Please keep sending us your picks or include them in the comments section below.

The agency that invests Florida’s retirement fund repeatedly misled government officials, including the governor and the attorney general, about investments, even as employees at the agency expressed concern about “losses and shaky investments,” reports the St. Petersburg Times. Agency managers tell the paper “that they never tried to deceive anyone but acknowledge that they need to be more open.”

Also, most of the 22 charities tied to a Phoenix televangelism ministry “performed controversial transactions with supplies that helped inflate their finances,” reports the Arizona Republic. The charities shuffled millions of dollars’ worth of goods among themselves, and then each took credit for donating most or all of the value of the goods. Representatives for the charities “say it doesn’t matter how many charities take credit on tax forms for donations as long as the supplies get to the needy.”