Antonio Gracias, a senior DOGE official, who simultaneously managed nearly $ 2 billion in nine public pension funds, left the government, said his business after a Union leader has raised questions about the risks that the double roles of Gracias have asked the funds.
Gracias is founder, managing director and investment director of Valor Equity PartnersA investment capital company that manages $ 17.5 billion in assets. Ally Elon Musk for a long time, Gracias worked at the Ministry of Government efficiency, the cost reduction entity created by Musk and President Donald Trump. During his stay in Doge, he attacked the Social Security Administration and raised allegations of electoral fraud.
Monday, Randi Weingarten, president of the American teachers’ federation, Letters sent Asking managers of nine public pension funds which, together, invested $ 1.8 billion with a value if Gracias work with DOGE has reduced their values.
“The trustee of pension funds have the duty to ensure the integrity of their investments, and it is right for us that Valor employees seem to be engaged in alternative activities unrelated to the management of their main profession,” Weingarten told NBC News. She said AFT had written to the nine funds “to wonder if the risk of value now prevail over gains”.
Weingarten sent the letters to the California Public Employees ‘withdrawal system (Calpers), to California Teachers’ withdrawal system (CALSTRS), to the New York State Common Retry Fund, at the Teacher withdrawal System of Texas and Other funds. AFT, its organization, has 1.8 million members, some beneficiaries of the nine pension funds.
Valor did not respond to a request for information on Gracias for Doge’s work on Tuesday. On Wednesday, the Weingu office of Weingarten sent an email to Valor requesting the current status of his work in the Trump administration. Valor responded to Weingarten that Gracias stopped contributing as a volunteer in Doge on July 1. He confirmed in an e-mail that the gracias “remained actively involved in the management of valor” during his stay in Doge.
The departure of Gracias de Doge does not seem to have been announced publicly.
“Although we are encouraged that Mr. Gracias has abandoned Doge and now seems to take his core business, it is disappointing that he has apparently taken letters from investors to finally eliminate the truth,” Weingarten said in a statement.
Gracias founded Valor in 1995, According to his websiteAnd was a first institutional investor in Tesla, the Musk electric car company, as well as an administrator. He helped Tesla make actions to the public, and Forbes estimates Its net value at 2.3 billion dollars, largely because of its Tesla actions.
Gracias Tell to journalists In May, that during his stay in Doge, he referred to 57 examples of potential electoral fraud to the Ministry of Justice. He described the people as “resident foreigners who have been registered to vote and who may have voted in the elections”.
Gracias underlined the 57 cases but admitted that he did not know if people had actually made ballots. “We are not sure,” he said. “We have returned the cases.” If they are fraudulent, the 57 bulletins represent a tiny fraction of the more than 155 million votes expressed in the 2024 elections.
During a town hall event in the Wisconsin this year, Gracias and Musk criticized the Social Security Administration, wrongly saying to the public that a large number of immigrants received social security cards and then collected advantages. Instead, undocumented immigrants often pay the social security system without being able to receive services.
Weingarten declared in his letters to the pension funds that Gracias’ work at DOGE was “potentially in contradiction with the interests of your fund and its beneficiaries”, many of whom depend on social security payments in addition to their pensions.
The letters also indicated that the double roles of Gracias have raised fundamental questions about the extent to which it is “really engaged in asset management activities for which your fund pays them”.
Calpers, for example, paid the value of more than $ 8 million in management fees during the year 2024, according to his Most recent annual report.
The representatives of Calpers, CallStrs, the New York State pension and the Texas teacher’s retirement system confirmed that they had received the letters from the rear. A spokesperson for Calpers said he had examined the letter and would respond accordingly.
A spokesperson for Callstrs said: “We monitor our assets, hire companies and collaboratons with general partners to identify and face the risks in our portfolio.”
