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NEWS from the Office of the New York State Comptroller
Contact: Press Office 518-474-4015

Office of the State Comptroller Response to Report Issued Today by the Department of Financial Services

October 17, 2016

New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli's Communications Director Jennifer Freeman made the following statement today:

"It's disappointing and shocking that a regulator would issue such an uninformed and unprofessional report. This report was emailed to our office five minutes before it was provided to the press. If the agency had reached out to our investment professionals, it would have known the aggressive steps that Comptroller DiNapoli and CIO Vicki Fuller have taken to reduce hedge fund investments and limit fees, including lowering the hedge fund allocation to 2 percent of assets from 3 percent and paying below average fees. In fact, the Fund has not put money into a hedge fund in well over a year. Unfortunately, the Department of Financial Services seems more interested in playing political games, so remains unaware of actions taken by what is one of the best managed and best funded public pension funds in the country. We will provide a full response after a thorough review."