Since 2008, I have reported on the many crimes of the Principal Group of Companies (Principal). A daunting task, Principal owned a multi-faceted process to steal your savings. This effort required hundreds of employees, many of whom were unaware that they were perpetrating a crime. Others, many holding higher level positions within the company, lived double lives to hide their motives. Some were drug addicts, most were simply starved for cash, and even though they stole billions of dollars, they needed more, and your 401k savings became an easy target. Your money could also buy them a position with a company that thrived on criminal behavior. The company had perpetrated crimes since the company’s inception in the early 1980’s, and many of the original perpetrators were classmates at Drake University. Their activities reeked of cronyism that extended well beyond the walls of Principal. It wasn’t uncommon for Principal’s top executives to hire their wives for elevated positions, paying them exorbitant salaries to perform small tasks. Certain State of Iowa regulators and district court judges were also college classmates with Principal executives, and many of them also played a major role in helping Principal to perpetrate their crimes, later becoming employees or board members with the company. Family members of high ranking Iowa State regulators were also provided high paying jobs with Principal, assuming important positions and provided technical skills to defraud 401k investors of billions of dollars.
The most intense period of criminal activity thrived during the decade of 2004 through 2014, and peaked during the financial crisis in 2008-2009. Greed forced Principal’s hand in crime to reign through 2007, and 401k investors covered the company’s losses, measured in the billions of dollars, when the Principal U.S. Property Separate Account was frozen in September, 2008. I have published almost 600 articles related to Principal’s crimes. Recently, when the Department of Justice introduced their Whistleblower’s Pilot Program, I locked the website from public view, although isolated articles can still be found floating around in Internet outer space. With the introduction of the new Trump appointed DOJ Attorney General, the future of the Whistleblower’s program will likely continue in force, so I thought I would at least re-start public interest in this issue, since thousands of investors had followed my articles in the past.
Future articles will follow in greater detail the methodology used by Principal to steal billions of dollars from their clients, and expanding on conflicting regulations that exist today to propagate these crimes against Americans that simply want to save for retirement. Under previous administrations, Principal had the support of our government employees to steal. Hopefully, under the Trump administration, the recent purging of government officials and future efforts to correct broken laws and regulatory functions, Federal and State perpetrators, as well as corporate criminals, will be brought to task for their crimes. I recommend to my readers that they follow closely not only my future articles, but the industry as well. If you sense a weak regulator, bring your thoughts to their attention… with existing and future whistleblower programs, public voices like you own will grow to protect your financial future.
