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CIA training still an issue
County expert refuses to sign waiver

March 22, 2008 -- A witness for the county in a lawsuit over the pension scandal testified last week that he would not sign a waiver to allow the Central Intelligence Agency to verify that he received actuarial training from the agency.

Stuart Piltch, of King of Prussia, Pa., has refused on national security grounds to sign a waiver that could allow Mercer Human Resource Consulting, the defendant in the suit, to verify his story.

The county is suing Mercer, a former pension adviser, for its role in creating hugely generous benefits that led to the pension scandal that ousted County Executive Tom Ament and several supervisors from office.

US District Judge Charles Clevert said Mercer must try getting the information about Piltch from the CIA through a subpoena before the judge can consider ordering Piltch to sign a waiver, according to court documents.

Piltch, whom the county offered as an expert witness, said in the document that he worked for the Central Intelligence Agency in the late 1970s and early 1980s. His resume says he worked for the CIA in 1980 and from 1983 to 1985.

Piltch also said he graduated from college in 1982, after his spy agency employment began.

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County pension suit witness claims CIA training
Testifies that training is too secret to testify about

March 31, 2008 -- A witness in the county's mega-million dollar pension scandal law suit said that his CIA training as an actuary is too secret to testify about -- and that he worked for the CIA before he graduated from college.

His lists employment with the spy agency on his resume, however.

Stuart Piltch, of King of Prussia, Pa., refused on national security grounds to sign a waiver that could allow Mercer Human Resource Consulting, the defendant in the suit, to verify his story.

"The waiver requested of me is broad and would apply to far more information than testing, and invades national security issues," he said in a court document.

The county is suing Mercer, a former pension adviser, for its role in creating hugely generous benefits that led to the pension scandal that ousted County Executive Tom Ament and several supervisors from office.

Piltch, whom the county offered as an expert witness, said in the document that he worked for the Central Intelligence Agency in the late 1970s and early 1980s. His resume says he worked for the CIA in 1980 and from 1983 to 1985.

His resume also says that he graduated from college in 1982.

Piltch acknowledged during a deposition that he did not belong to professional organizations and that he is a "non-certified actuary," according to documents filed by Mercer.

"When pressed further for the source of his actuarial 'expertise,' Mr. Piltch explained somewhat astonishingly that he had taken “seven to nine' of the actuarial examinations that would ordinarily be required for designation as a 'fellow' or 'associate' of the Society of Actuaries in the early 1980s while a junior employee of the Central Intelligence Agency," Mercer said. The firm said it wanted to verify that Piltch qualifies as an expert witness.

"More astonishingly," Mercer continued, "he suggested that he may even have taken these examinations under an assumed name. Finally, when asked whether there was any tangible evidence supporting his story of actuarial training at the CIA, Mr. Piltch stated that he could not provide any information regarding the circumstances of the testing or proof of the results, but that “someone in the federal government' could confirm his story."

Mercer tried to get Piltch's CIA training records from the spy agency through a freedom of information act request, Mercer said. The CIA, however, said it needed a waiver from Piltch to release the records. Piltch refused to grant it.

Piltch's national security concerns make no sense, Mercer said. "Mercer is not seeking evidence of Mr. Piltch’s work at the CIA, whatever it may have been – notably, Mr. Piltch himself would not characterize his work as “classified or secret– but simply evidence of whether he took actuarial examinations twenty-five years ago."

Piltch, though, held firm.

"The value of a waiver must be balanced against other concerns," he said in his affidavit. "Merely requesting a waiver would be considered by the agency -- whose core value is the maintenance of secrecy by current and former employees -- as a breach of its trust by me."

"I have an interest in preserving that relationship of trust," he said. "In addition to the trust I pledged while at the agency, I continue to perform work for the CIA and other pieces of the U.S. intelligence apparatus and I am concerned about protecting those relationships."

Pitch does not explain why listing his CIA work on his resume would not be considered a breach of trust by the agency.

"I have no documents of any kind relating to or concerning my training and experience at the CIA in my possession, custody or control," he said.

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County punts Quarles as bond counsel
Firm is defending pension consultant in lawsuit