After a spicy meeting of the Alaska Permanent Fund Board of Trustees, the board went into executive session to try to determine just who had leaked internal board emails about Trustee Ellie Rubenstein and allegations that she has been bullying and threatening the fund’s staff into doing business aligned with the interests of David Rubenstein’s Carlyle Group, a powerful private equity company.
The executive session was to be about security and how to ensure that no more leaks occurred to the public. Some on the board seem especially concerned that the Alaska Landmine political blog released some of the internal emails in a mind-blowing expose of the workings of Alaska’s sovereign wealth fund.
But then, security was again a problem. A member of the public was able to access the “secure” virtual meeting through simply clicking on a feature that allowed him to join, and he took dozens of pages of notes and gave them to the Alaska Landmine.
It appears the Permanent Fund meeting manager didn’t “close the door” to the virtual meeting and now everything that was said has been noted in detail.
The Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation acknowledged this in a notice on its website today:
“The Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation (APFC) was alerted to the fact that the Board of Trustees’ executive session held during the May 8, 2024, Special Meeting was accessed by members of the public. APFC is concurrently assessing and conducting a forensic analysis of the comprised session,” the Permanent Fund wrote. It appears the fund intended to mean “compromised session.”
Jeff Landfield, of the Alaska Landmine, said he is reviewing the notes and is likely to have more to tell about the widening scandal at the Permanent Fund.
Must Read Alaska’s report about the public meeting that took place in advance of the executive session is below. It explains how the board of trustees is suffering from a schism surrounding the behavior of trustee Ellie Rubenstein toward the professional staff:
