$1.6B in PD pension funds 'gambled' away

Phoenix –- Arizona police union leaders say a former pension board member lost more than a billion dollars in state retirement funds because of bad investments.

"We entrust them with our money," said Brian Livingston, Arizona Police Association executive director. "Somehow, someone forgot that responsibility."

Oh, stop whining! This is the big time...why didn’t you check on your pension fund now an then? This is your own fault.

Livingston said that while he and other union members were auditing pension funds they found a $1.6 billion discrepancy. They said it could be traced back to Jack Cross, former administrator for the Public Safety Pension Retirement Program.

Cross retired in 2004. He could not be reached for comment.

Is he the guy I saw on the beach in Monaco...wearing big, baggy shorts in a large floral pattern and smoking a big, fat cigar ? Him??

Is that where our pensions went?? Oh, phuque!

But Livingston said he made years of poor investments in the late 90s and early 2000s -- possibly without proper approval.

Those investments included high-risk companies like Enron, he said.

Officers said this couldn't come at a worse time. Because right now, state lawmakers are eying sweeping pension reform that could stretch the current police pensions.

Other police union leaders from Phoenix and Mesa told ABC15 they are concerned about what happened. They said they didn't find out about the loss of the $1.6 billion until a few months ago.

Copyright 2011 Scripps Media, Inc.