Category: Mortgage Fraud

A whistleblower report detailing financial misconduct within Principal Life Insurance Company had been officially submitted to the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) under the Biden administration. The findings suggested a significant enforcement action may be imminent, marking one of the largest regulatory crackdowns in recent history.

Twelve years of extensive research had uncovered evidence that Principal may have unlawfully diverted $5 billion from 401(k) investors over the past two decades. At the core of this operation is the Principal U.S. Property Separate Account, a financial vehicle allegedly used to conceal the misappropriation of funds. The complexity of the scheme raises pressing questions regarding whether it was an isolated operation or part of a broader network of financial misconduct involving a less than stellar insurance company.

While certain individuals involved had retired, the impact of their actions remained significant. Federal agencies, including the SEC and the Department of Labor (DOL), provided amnesty provisions that could allow Principal to reduce penalties—such as fines and prison sentences—if Principal had chosen to self-report within 120 days of the regulators receiving the whistleblower report.  Since Principal’s executives failed to act, regulatory intervention should have been inevitable, and executives linked to the scheme should soon face serious consequences, perhaps prison terms, for their past sins.  But Principal somehow knew they would be “safe” from prosecution.  My reports ended in the trash and a gang of thieves continued to walk the halls of the Principal group of companies.

Fast forward to 2020, and once again, despite a major pandemic and low returns on investments, Principal blossomed forth hundreds of millions of net income while values in the Principal U.S. Property Separate Account plummeted, all while  the investors were frozen out of the PUSPSA.  This letter was linked to a forum in 2020, reporting the fact that in 2020 the PUSPSA Manager decided to limit withdrawals in order to “achieve several outcomes:”

1.  To protect the long-term interests of Plan Participants who have interests in the
      account,
2. To avoid forced liquidation of income producing properties at a
     disadvantageous point in time, and
3. To provide generally for fair treatment to those participants wishing to retain
     their interest in the portfolio, as well as those who are redeeming.

It was as if lightning had struck twice… Principal’s brigade of thieves had struck twice, once again, hauling off millions, if not billions of dollars in 401k investor’s savings. The fact that our Federal regulators, once again, turned a blind side to thei crimes, is unbelievable, but the evidence is overwhelming.  Sure, Principal filed all the necessary reports with the SEC, and the SEC returned the reports for clarification, but then once again,  Principal’s CFO responded with an excuse, and the regulator accepted the lies and once again, it was business as usual for the Fed’s.  And once again, tens of thousands of 401k investor’s got the shaft.

There is so much evidence to show what Principal is doing to steal the retiree’s money, and yet the federal investigator’s, under the Biden administration, ignored the evidence.  But today things are different.  A new Sheriff, and eventually, the crooked regulator’s and Agency administrator’s will be shown the door, and Principal will start digging deeper into their pockets to buy off yet again, more politicians.