GOAC

• Dept. of Legislative Audit then discusses the deficiencies in compliance and internal controls that they encountered during the audit. They admit that they don’t check for the design or compliance of internal controls, just errors that they stumbled across during the audit.

• There are 3 clips of deficiency examples where the excuse for the failure was high employee turnover (especially the finance departments of the agencies) and/or shortage of staff across the agencies.

• Chairman asks excellent question about “shortage of staff” being the excuse for deficiencies, yet hiring more staff is never anyone’s solution to the deficiencies.

• State employee pay has not kept up with inflation for years, so they are earning relatively less than they did several years ago. The reason many state employees stay is for the security of the pension plan to retire on in the future.

  • There is likely a large fraud in the South Dakota Retirement System (SDRS), so state employees will likely not receive the retirement benefits they have been told they will receive. It will likely be significantly less.

    • Although, it is unknown how much less, as so far, no South Dakota oversight agency will investigate or stop the fraud in any way.

• Russ Olson, Auditor General, assures the Committee several times that he follows up on anything of concern. Russ Olson was appointed to this position in 2021 by recommendation of the Executive Board in HCR6003 signed by Larry Rhoden and Spencer Gosch during Kristi Noem’s term.

  • Russ Olson never follows up on Renae Randall’s fraud report other than acknowledging that he received it, so he must not have found it concerning?

  • Please read the report posted on this page or in the downloadable “Testimony and Documents” button at the bottom of this page and decide for yourself if you think it is concerning.

• Committee then votes to accept the FY25 Audit.

• Russ Olson then presents the Conflict of Interest report. Conflicts of Interest disclosures are required from people of status and responsibility to maintain trust and accountability in the people serving the Citizens of South Dakota.

• He assures the Committee he thoroughly reviews anything suspicious and found nothing of concern

  • Renae filed a fraud report before the FY25 close.

• This Conflict of Interest report is current as of a week ago.

  • SDRS/SDIC Boards have not disclosed a Conflict of Interest.

  • Matt Clark (SDIC State Investment Officer that fired the Whistleblower) is on the SDRS Board.

  • Travis Almond (SDRS Executive Director) is on the SDIC Board and voted to send Whistleblower an NDA. He was hired by the SDRS Board in 2019 during Kristi Noem’s term.

  • Darin Seeley (BHRA Commissioner that approved the monetary offer for NDA) is an SDRS Board member. He was appointed to BHRA and the SDRS Board by Kristi Noem in 2019.

  • Hank Prim (AG Agent the SDIC Whistleblower was to report too) is an SDRS Board member.

  • Josh Haeder (State Treasure who oversees both SDRS and SDIC) is on the SDIC Board that sent the Whistleblower the NDA.

• Russ discusses how he tells people he wants to know about issues immediately so he can look into it in a timely manner.

  • Renae filed the fraud report three weeks after being fired for Whistleblowing, it is 13 month later at this meeting.

• He again assures the Committee that there is nothing concerning.

• The Chairman asks a question about what Russ does if someone comes to him with a concern.

  • Russ assures him that he looks into the Board minutes.

  • And he listens to meeting audio when possible to really understand what happened.

    • SDRS 6-4-25 meeting audio has been deleted from the Boards and Commission website. It had a “Personnel Matters” item that was in executive session. The Board would give Travis Almond an award for being so ethical afterwards. Travis Almond would vote to send the Whistleblower an NDA the next day at the SDIC Board meeting.

  • Russ will then reach out to board members or directors and ask questions about the issue.

    • There have been several SDRS/SDIC Board meetings minutes with no Conflict of Interest Disclosures since Renae filed the fraud report.

• A GOAC member asks a great question about people being on multiple boards being a Conflict of Interest. Russ agrees it could be, but can’t think of an example of a concern.

• Committee then votes to accept the report.

• The Internal Control Board then presents it’s findings

  • It is noted that just last week the SDIC wanted to participate voluntarily with the Internal Control Board, even though it’s not legally required to participate.

  • The SDIC is the agency that manages all of the State of South Dakota financial assets, yet was not legally required to participate in the Internal Controls Board process.

• Jim Terwilliger is the Commissioner of Bureau of Finance & Management (BFM) and also the head of the Internal Controls Board. He was appointed to this position by Kristi Noem in April 2022.

• Chairman comments that the Internal Control Board was created as a result of the EB-5 and Gear-Up Scandals. (Those scandals resulted in several mysterious “suicides,” please click on this “Historical SD Frauds” link) and asks if they have enough resources to properly do their jobs.

  • Terwilliger answers that the Whistleblower laws passed in 2025 is all he needs to do his job effectively.

  • Terwilliger has been to alot of SDRS/SDIC Board meetings with Renae previously, so he knows what happened and that Renae has been unable to report her Whistleblower claims to the AG Office.

  • Terwilliger wants to make sure the cost of Controls are not more expensive than the risk.

  • SDIC holds over $20 billion of tax-payer money and SDRS members retirement savings.

• Terwilliger assures the Committee that everything is fine and there are no concerns. He again uses the 2025 Whistleblower laws to legitimize his work.

• Committee then votes to accept the report.

• Renae Randall, Former Senior Investment Manager of the SDIC fired for Whistleblowing about a collapse of Internal Controls testifies about the illegitimacy of the FY25 Legislative Audit.

• She explains that she sent Leg. Audit a fraud report before the FY25 close, acknowledged by Russ Olson that he received it, but was never investigated further and SDIC received a clean audit without further communication with the Whistleblower.

• She then CLEARLY states that there are many red flags for fraud in this situation and that there is likely a fraud at the SDIC that the Dept. of Leg. Audit had to go out of it’s way not to look for, rendering the FY25 Audit meaningless.

• She then states that the SDIC illegally changed it’s whistleblower laws to something different than the 2025 Whistleblower laws, so Leg. Audit should look into that in FY26 if they don’t understand that is also a red flag for fraud.

• Renae then speaks about how there is at least one and likely several whistleblowers that are not being investigated by breaking several laws, so this seems like a common practice in State agencies.

• She finished by asking the Internal Control Board how the public can be assured that any of their work plan is actually being followed.

• A question was asked about the documents Renae submitted because not all the Committee members had seen it.

• The Chairman answers that he decided to send it to the Executive Board (EBoard) without showing them first.

  • He seems to be talking about the Whistleblower complaint that Renae had sent to LRC for GOAC to investigate on June 3rd. The other committee members do not seem to know about this complaint either. The Chairman apparently decided without showing other members first to send it to the EBoard that oversees the SDIC, but has no investigative power.

  • Chris Karr is Chairman of the EBoard and also a GOAC member. He was the first legislator that Renae personally dropped off a letter to his house during the Cyberattack around Christmas 2025, because she knew he was a finance professional and powerful member of the EBoard. He has never contacted her yet.

  • Renae is at the meeting for the legitimacy of the FY25 Leg Audit, so it’s a different issue that pertains to the vote to accept the Audit a few hours earlier at this very meeting.

• Renae hopes the FY25 Leg. Audit is investigated, as with this testimony, GOAC would be accessories to a fraudulent audit that would likely result in a State Credit Rating downgrade, possible bond defaults and class-action lawsuits by SDRS members.

• Renae is also curious what the solution is to all the “high employee turnover especially in the finance departments (red flag for fraud) and short staffed agencies” being the problem with alot of the audit deficiencies, if no South Dakota entity wants to stop the likely fraud in the Retirement System. Larry Rhoden’s first budget is always 0% raises for state employees in 4-5% inflation years. Then there is perpetual COLA cuts in the pension plan while Matt Clark wants 1.5% bigger raises than everyone else while he spends all his time stalking the whistleblower he fired and illegally changing the SDIC Whistleblower policy to make sure none of the other staff whistleblow on him. Why would any decent, normal person want to work for the State of South Dakota without some kind of independent organization to protect them from their employer?

• The State of South Dakota passed improved whistleblower laws in 2025 because of all the corruption and frauds that made it a crime if a supervisor/manager didn’t whistleblow if they saw something concerning. Good law actually. But when you do whistleblow, the State illegally fires you, won’t take your report, illegally sends NDA, and then illegally cyberattacks and terrorizes you when you don’t illegally sign it. Then the Internal Control Board, also created after a few VERY concerning frauds, uses the 2025 Whistleblower laws as justification that nothing concerning is going on.

• South Dakota state employees need protection.

• South Dakota taxpayers need protection.

• South Dakota citizens that need basic government services need protection.

Entities that have direct knowledge and some kind of responsibility to do something about Renae’s Whistleblower claims and likely fraud at the SDRS/SDIC, but has purposely chosen not to:

• SDIC Board

• SDRS Board

• State Treasure Office

• School & Public Lands Office

• Dept. of Legislative Audit

• Civil Service Commission (BHRA)

• Attorney General Office

• GPNA Law Firm

• SD Bar Association

• House Retirement Laws Committee

• Executive Board

• Government Operations & Audit Committee

*Not every person in these entities is a problem, in fact Renae is quite sure there are some rather good people sprinkled about in these entities, but the people in positions of power do seem to be.

Every politician knows about the SDIC/SDRS Whistleblower and the likely fraud at the SDRS/SDIC. Please contact your Representatives and people running for office and ask them what they will do to stop the likely theft of tax-payer money and SDRS members retirement savings.

State Employees can join South Dakota State Employee Organization (SDSEO). It isn’t a union, but an organization that lobbies for state employee issues through legislation. The State of South Dakota makes it difficult to know about this organization, but the more people that join, the more influential it will be. It has a newly created independent website for privacy and cybersecurity reasons and anyone can become an Associate Member as ExploseLies605.com has for general support.

The Sioux Falls Region Labor Federation would be a good place to ask questions about unionization of municipal employees or any other public or private organization that is treating their employees like this.

Fraud Report sent to Dept. of Leg. Audit before FY25 close.

Renae appreciates that GOAC does make her documents publicly available, as the House Retirement Laws Committee did not and should have.