Mehle Takes TSP Board Members to Court

Former executive director Roger Mehle accused board members Andrew Saul, Thomas Fink, Alejandro Sanchez and Gordon Whiting of the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) of failing to meet their obligations as fund trustees, according to a report on Govexec.com.

In the lawsuit Mehle claims that prior to their appointment to the TSP board in November, Saul, Sanchez and Whiting irresponsibly never sought out Mehle or other TSP board members to gain an understanding of the ongoing legal wrangling with American Management Systems (AMS).

The TSP board fired AMS in July 2001 after four delays and a tripling of the estimated cost of the project to modernize the TSP computer system. The thrift board then sued AMS, asking for $350 million in damages, but a federal judge dismissed the case, ruling that the board could only sue AMS through the Justice Department. Nearly three million civilian and military participants have about $100 billion invested in the TSP.

Mehle asked in the lawsuit that the TSP board be prevented from ending the lawsuit against AMS. His lawsuit also accuses those members of wrongly ousting his successor, James Petrick, former director of the board’s Office of Benefits and Investments and now the acting executive director of the TSP board. Mehle served as executive director of the board for nearly nine years before resigning the position in November 2002 to return to his private law practice.

TSP officials said they should be offering daily valuation when the computer upgrade is completed (See  TSP Daily Valuation Launch Delayed – Again).