Ohio State Teachers Retirement System, Columbus, has made an initial rejection to Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost’s request to join the Florida State Board of Administration’s securities class-action lawsuit against Target.
In a March 14 letter to Yost in response to a letter earlier that day, Aaron Hood, the $97.7 billion pension fund’s interim executive director, confirmed that STRS staff determined that joining the lawsuit and seeking lead-plaintiff status would not be a “prudent use of system resources at this time.”
Hood said the pension fund’s loss totaling $5 million during the class-action period fell below the minimum threshold recommended in its securities litigation guidelines established in its board policy. The guidelines state in part that “in order to provide for the efficient operation of the System, STRS Ohio will not typically consider taking an active role in securities cases in which the System’s losses are less than $10 million.”
Hood said in the letter: “I take these policies seriously and size alone is reason enough to reject this request.”
Yost, who has announced his plan to run for Ohio governor in 2026, sent a letter to the STRS board March 14 recommending the pension fund seek lead-plaintiff status in the lawsuit by the April 1 deadline.
On Feb. 20, the $270.5 billion Tallahassee-based Florida board filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Ft. Myers, Fla., against Target, alleging that its executives made misleading and false statements regarding the potential backlash and associated financial impact of the retailer’s LGBTQ+-themed pride campaign of 2023.
“Corporations that push radical leftist ideology at the expense of financial returns jeopardize the retirement security of Florida’s first responders and teachers,” said James Uthmeier, Florida attorney general and one of three SBA trustees along with Gov. Ron DeSantis and CFO Jimmy Patronis.
In his letter to STRS, Yost referenced his understanding that the pension fund would not have sought lead-plaintiff status given the size of its loss of $5 million, or about 0.005% of the pension fund’s current total assets.
“There is no doubt that the possibility of recouping losses improperly sustained due to corporate fraud and malfeasance through a securities class action is one of these tools, regardless of the amount to be recovered,” Yost said.
Hood said in his letter he invited members of Yost’s staff to state their case to the board at its March 19 meeting.
