# John Thurston Treasurer of State of Arkansas. Per the May 16 contact list xlsx, his office is at 500 Woodlane, Ste. 220, Little Rock, AR 72201, with phone 501-682-5888 and email [email protected]. Per ATRS Board Policy 1 Section XII(a)(3), the State Treasurer is a statutory ex officio member of the ATRS Investment Committee. Per the same provision, this committee considers all investment proposals and makes recommendations to the Board. In the materials produced from the 6/18/25 FOIA, Thurston appears in three connected items. First, Milligan's 4/11/2025 2:18 PM Outlook email confirming the meeting with Berman and Young: "Treasurer, Thank you for agreeing to meet with Israel Bonds representatives Mr. Larry Berman, National Managing Director, and Mr. Brad Young, Executive Director - Southeast Regional Office on Tuesday, April 15, 2025, at 11:30 a.m. in my office located in room 230 of the State Capitol." Second, Spadoni's 4/11/2025 1:52 PM consolidated schedule to Berman that lists Thurston's 11:30 to 12:00 PM slot. Third, the May 16 xlsx contact list Brad Young requested for follow-up thank-you notes after the trip, which lists Thurston along with two of his deputies (Bill Huffman, Chief Deputy Treasurer; Kenneth Burleson, Deputy Treasurer). The Thurston meeting is structurally significant for the ATRS Israel Bonds analysis. As statutory ex officio member of the ATRS Investment Committee, Thurston participates in the committee that considers investment proposals before they go to the full Board. The Israel Bonds proposal that became Resolution 2025-22 went through that committee on 6/2/2025. Whether Thurston's 4/15/2025 in-person meeting with Berman influenced his subsequent committee or Board action is not knowable from the materials in this batch. What is established is that the DCI institutional sales lead met privately with the statutory Investment Committee member six weeks before the committee considered the proposal. The companion concept page [[auditor-multi-official-capitol-tour]] addresses the broader pattern. The materials in this batch do not document any Thurston-side correspondence about Israel Bonds, any post-meeting follow-up, or the substance of the 4/15 conversation. The Auditor's-office FOIA response only includes documents the Auditor's office held; Thurston's own custodian records would be a follow-up FOIA target. ## R2 residual sub-batches: prior Election Day 2024 outreach attempt The Brady-Burleson iMessage at [[auditor-foia-r2-residual]] establishes that the 4/15/2025 11:30 AM Capitol office Thurston-Berman meeting was **not** the first Auditor's-office Treasury approach on the DCI delegation. On Mon, Oct 28, 2024 at 11:29 AM Brady iMessaged Treasury Deputy Kenneth Burleson asking whether "the Secretary" (Thurston) could do a "five minute hello / handshake and photo visit" with Lawrence Berman on Tuesday November 5, 2024 (Election Day), plus whether Burleson and Bill Huffman could give Berman a 30-minute substantive meeting. The wiki's prior framing of the 4/15/2025 meeting as the first documented Thurston-DCI contact is therefore refined: the Auditor's office requested a Thurston Election Day photo-handshake six months earlier. Brady's "We are aware the timing isn't ideal" framing acknowledged the Election Day awkwardness. Whether Thurston conducted the 5-minute photo on November 5, 2024 or Burleson/Huffman gave Berman the 30 minutes is not knowable from this text alone; the request is documented, the response is not. Brady's redacted yellow-legal-pad note (scan_Redacted - undated note from jason.pdf) contains the fragment "? John Thurston 230 / 905" — Brady's planning consideration of a 2:30 PM Thurston slot or a 9:05 alternative — adding further evidence that Brady was actively planning Thurston's Election Day involvement. ## Evidence > "Treasurer, Thank you for agreeing to meet with Israel Bonds representatives Mr. Larry Berman, National Managing Director, and Mr. Brad Young, Executive Director - Southeast Regional Office on Tuesday, April 15, 2025, at 11:30 a.m. in my office located in room 230 of the State Capitol." > Dennis Milligan to John Thurston, April 11, 2025 - 2.pdf p.1, 4/11/2025 2:18 PM > "11:30 - 12:00 Treasurer John Thurston" > Wendy Spadoni schedule to Lawrence Berman, April 11, 2025 - 4.pdf p.2, 4/11/2025 1:52 PM > "Treasurer John Thurston | Arkansas Treasurer of State | 501-682-5888 | [email protected] | 500 Woodlane, Ste. 220, Little Rock, AR 72201" > Spadoni contact list, May 16, 2025 - attachment.xlsx r7, 4/16/2025 > "There is established an Investment Committee that shall be composed of eight (8) members... The remaining two (2) members of the Investment Committee shall be the State Treasurer and the State Bank Commissioner upon their respective acceptance of their appointment as State Treasurer or State Bank Commissioner." > Board Policy 1 Section XII(a)(1)(3), BoardPolicy_01.pdf p.8 ## Cross-References [[dennis-milligan]] Auditor who hosted the Thurston meeting [[wendy-spadoni]] [[jason-brady]] Auditor's office staff who scheduled the Thurston meeting [[lawrence-berman]] [[brad-young]] DCI representatives Thurston met [[mark-white]] [[amy-fecher]] pension executive directors Thurston is fellow Investment Committee member with [[atrs-board-governance-structure]] concept page on Investment Committee composition [[auditor-multi-official-capitol-tour]] concept page on the broader meeting pattern [[auditor-as-dci-channel]] companion concept page [[kenneth-burleson]] [[bill-huffman]] Treasury Deputies in Thurston's office Brady text-coordinated with for the November 5, 2024 Election Day Berman trip ## ATRS Board attendance via Burleson designee (7/3/25 production) The 7/3/25 supplemental ATRS FOIA production documents Thurston's ATRS Board attendance pattern at the April 7, 2025 meeting: not personally, via designee Kenneth Burleson. The 4/7 attendance roster (embedded in the 6/2 packet) lists "Kenneth Burleson, designee for Hon. John Thurston, State Treasurer." See [[kenneth-burleson]] for the broader designee role. Whether Thurston personally or Burleson-as-designee attended the 6/2 meeting (where the Israel Bonds vote was taken) is not knowable from the packet (which is pre-meeting); the 6/2 minutes when produced would document this. The Investment Committee meeting at which the Israel Bonds proposal was first formally considered (per the Resolution 2025-22 preamble's "recommendation of the Investment Committee") is a separate meeting whose roster is in the Investment Committee minutes, also a follow-up FOIA target. [[auditor-foia-r1-spadoni]] [[atrs-board-rules-r1]] [[auditor-foia-r2-residual]] [[atrs-bot-packets-7-3-25]] [[apers-foia-r1-7-7-25]] source pages ## Treasurer's-office $20M Israel Bonds purchase post-4/15/2025 meeting (7/7/25 production) The 7/7/25 APERS R1 production substantially documents the financial outcome of Thurston's 4/15/2025 11:30 AM Capitol office meeting with Berman/Young. Two cross-confirming sources establish a $20 million Israel Bonds purchase by the State Treasurer's office made directly after the meeting: First, Berman's 4/17/2025 1:48 PM thank-you to Amy Fecher (APERS Executive Director) noted: "The State Treasurer made another significant investment ($20M) in our bonds after our meeting with his team this week, and we certainly hope that we can bring APERS on board as well." This is Berman's direct confirmation that the meeting produced the $20M purchase as a transaction outcome. Second, Brady's IFSC remarks at the 5/15/2025 APERS Investment Finance Subcommittee meeting per Mike Wickline's 5/15/2025 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette article: "state Treasurer John Thurston told the state board of Finance on Monday that the state treasurer's office recently purchased of $20 million in Israel bonds, so the office now holds about $55 million in Israel bonds." Wickline reported Brady citing Thurston's own statement to the State Board of Finance the prior Monday (5/12/2025). The combined $35M (legacy from prior Treasurer purchases by Milligan and Walther) plus $20M (Thurston's post-4/15 purchase) totals $55M as the current State Treasurer's-office Israel Bonds position. The state treasury portfolio is approximately $11.4 billion per the Wickline article. The Thurston purchase is therefore the first directly documented state-government Israel Bonds transaction resulting from the April 14-15, 2025 multi-official Capitol tour. This transitions the wiki's documented Treasurer-office DCI relationship from procedural meetings (the 4/15/2025 Berman-Thurston meeting was previously documented as occurring; substantive consequence was undocumented) to a documented financial transaction. > "The State Treasurer made another significant investment ($20M) in our bonds after our meeting with his team this week, and we certainly hope that we can bring APERS on board as well." > Lawrence Berman to Amy Fecher, IB_FOIA_MAY_25_Reviewed.pdf p.589, 4/17/2025 1:48 PM > "He noted that Walther, who served as state treasurer from August 2023 until January of this year, purchased Israel bonds as state treasurer, and state Treasurer John Thurston told the state board of Finance on Monday that the state treasurer's office recently purchased of $20 million in Israel bonds, so the office now holds about $55 million in Israel bonds." > Mike Wickline reporting Brady's IFSC statement, IB_FOIA_MAY_25_Reviewed.pdf p.21, published 5/15/2025 ## Treasury R1 7-7-25 production: independent confirmation of 4/15 meeting and 5/12 SBOF remarks The Treasury R1 batch independently confirms the 4/15/2025 Berman-Thurston Capitol meeting and adds Thurston-side documentation of the purchase that resulted. **The 4/15/2025 meeting venue and attendance.** Sandra Blount (Executive Assistant to the Treasurer) emailed Berman 4/2/2025 11:42 AM: "We will see you two gentlemen on the 15th. The meeting will be held in our conference room at the State Capitol, suite 220." Brad Young attended alongside Berman per the "two gentlemen" framing. The meeting venue is Treasury's State Capitol conference room Suite 220, distinct from the Auditor's office Room 230 venue Milligan's 4/11 confirmation email had identified. The 4/15 11:30 AM time matches Spadoni's pre-trip schedule. **The 5/12/2025 State Board of Finance opening remarks (the prepared text).** Thurston's prepared remarks on Israel Bonds: > Regarding foreign investments, we have purchased Israeli bonds in amounts consistent with our historical levels. The "consistent with our historical levels" framing is at variance with the actual cadence. The wiki's documented Treasury purchases are Milligan: $25M across 21 months (Jan 2020, Feb 2021, Oct 2021 twice; average $5M/year); Walther: $10M single purchase in Nov 2023; Thurston: $20M single-month purchase in May 2025. The Thurston purchase is therefore 4x the historical average annual cadence and 2x the Walther single-year cadence; framing as "consistent with our historical levels" is descriptively inaccurate. **Act 739 of 2025.** Thurston's prepared remarks immediately following the Israel Bonds line: > Ran successful Legislation during the most recent session > o Act 739—Cleans up the existing law and conforms the law to actual practice > o Removes the requirement of obtaining 2 investment grade ratings which will allow for more money to remain in the state of Arkansas because some Arkansas financial institutions only offer 1 rating > (Steve Pulley can answer additional questions) The Act 739 legislative change removes a requirement for two investment-grade ratings on certain bonds. Whether this affects Israel Bonds-classed instruments specifically is not documented in this batch. The "Steve Pulley can answer additional questions" instruction confirms Pulley as the substantive expert at Treasury on the Israel Bonds and Act 739 matters. **The 5/5/2025 DCI Payment Validation document (ORD-2087155).** The DCI Operations Approval for the Thurston $20M purchase carries the Operations Approver "Steven Hill" signature and the "Approved" status mark. The two bonds are documented at the DCI Operations level: | Pay Date | Issue Date | Amount | Report Number | CAT | |---|---|---|---|---| | 05/01/2030 | 05/01/2025 | $10,000,000.00 | 2025-667-12IIB05FX-2193057-1 | 50 | | 05/01/2028 | 05/01/2025 | $10,000,000.00 | 2025-667-12IIB03FX-2193057-2 | 50 | Purchaser address: Arkansas State Treasurer, Attn Celeste Gladden, 1401 W Capitol Ste 275, Little Rock, AR 72201, United States. The wiki's prior CUSIP-level breakdown from the BNY sample statement is therefore cross-confirmed at the DCI Operations Approval level. **Pulley placed the order on Thurston's behalf via Bill Huffman target-setting.** Berman's 4/16/2025 12:06 PM email to Pulley: "I just talked to Bill Huffman, and he told me you were planning to bring the portfolio up to $55M, with the purchase of 3 and 5 year paper. That would be a total purchase of $20M." Pulley's 2:20 PM order: "Pencil us in for $10MM of the 3yr 4.66% along with $10MM of the 5yr 5.17%." The order placement chain therefore documents Berman → Huffman target conversation → Pulley order email → Thurston's subsequent public statements. Whether Thurston himself was actively involved in the decision to purchase or whether Huffman/Pulley executed at their own discretion is not documented in this batch. The 5/12/2025 SBOF opening remarks present the purchase as routine portfolio management. [[treasury-foia-r1-7-7-25]] source page [[steve-pulley]] Senior Investment Officer who placed the order [[bill-huffman]] Chief Deputy Treasurer who set the $55M target with Berman [[sandra-blount]] Executive Assistant who scheduled the 4/15 meeting [[state-treasurer-israel-bonds-operations]] concept page on the Treasury operational pathway ## Treasury R2 9-23-25 production: SBOF official minutes and the internal credit recommendation override The Treasury R2 production produces the official 5/12/2025 SBOF meeting minutes documenting Thurston's Israel Bonds remarks in the formal Board record, and resolves a substantively significant question about the internal credit-team recommendation the Thurston purchase overrode. **The May 12, 2025 SBOF official minutes (a 33-minute meeting via Zoom).** Thurston's substantive Israel Bonds remarks are documented in the formal minutes: > Treasurer Thurston stated that the Treasury had another solid quarter of earnings during times in an uncertain market. Treasurer Thurston reported that the Treasury purchased Israeli bonds in amounts consistent with our historical levels. Treasurer Thurston also reported that the Treasurer's Office ran successful legislation during the most recent session: Act 739 was passed; this act cleans up the existing law and removes the requirement of obtaining two investment grade ratings, which will allow more money to remain in the state of Arkansas because some Arkansas financial institutions only offer one rating. > May-12-2025-SBOF-minutes.pdf p.2 The "consistent with our historical levels" framing in the formal SBOF minutes is the documented public record. The Act 739 framing is more explicit in the official minutes than in the R1-documented prepared remarks: the formal minutes state Act 739 "will allow more money to remain in the state of Arkansas because some Arkansas financial institutions only offer one rating." The framing presents Act 739 as a measure to benefit Arkansas financial institutions specifically. Whether the 2-rating-to-1-rating threshold reduction also affects the threshold for foreign sovereign debt (such as Israel Bonds) is not addressed in the minutes. **Sub-batch 1 of R2 substantially refines the wiki's prior framing of Thurston's "historical levels" remarks.** The wiki R1 ingest framed the purchase as 4x the historical average annual cadence based on the prior framing of Milligan-era purchases as "$25M, 2020-2021." The corrected R2 framing: Milligan-era cumulative purchases totaled $105M across 6 settlement dates spanning March 2018 through October 2021. Milligan-era per-purchase amounts ranged $5M-$30M, averaging $17.5M per settlement event. Thurston's $20M is consistent with the Milligan-era per-purchase cadence in dollar terms. The wiki's prior "4x annual cadence" framing is therefore corrected to a more accurate framing: the substantively significant critique pivots from per-purchase-amount comparison to **the override of the internal Treasury credit-team recommendation**. **The 10/8/2024 internal credit recommendation Thurston's purchase overrode.** The Treasury R2 production resolves the text of the "Israel Internal Credit overview 10-8-24" document referenced at R1. The substantive content is a 2-page rating-agency-derivative analysis with a Conclusion recommendation: > Considering these recent developments our recommendation is to hold our positions and allow for the $17M to roll off in the first half of 2025 and the $20M maturing calendar year 2026. The hold on adding more bonds will allow the team to maintain ongoing credit surveillance for this very fluid situation. > Israel Internal Credit overview 10-8-24.pdf p.2, 10/8/2024 The Thurston May 2025 $20M Israel Bonds purchase contradicted this internal Treasury credit recommendation by adding $20M, more than offsetting the $17M roll-off and bringing the position from $35M to $55M rather than allowing it to decline. The override of the internal credit-team recommendation is the substantively significant feature of the Thurston purchase decision. The wiki documents this at the dedicated concept page [[treasury-internal-credit-analysis]]. The Thurston purchase decision is not documented as a re-evaluation of the 10/8/2024 internal credit recommendation. The 5/12/2025 SBOF "consistent with our historical levels" framing presents the purchase as routine portfolio management, not as an override of the standing internal credit-team recommendation. Whether Thurston was briefed on the 10/8/2024 recommendation and chose to override it, or whether the override happened without Thurston's substantive awareness, is not documented. [[treasury-foia-r2-9-23-25]] source page [[treasury-internal-credit-analysis]] dedicated concept page on the 10/8/2024 internal credit overview and its Thurston override [[state-treasurer-israel-bonds-holdings]] holdings concept page with the corrected full purchase cadence framing ## Treasury R2 Sub-batch 3 (Communications binders): the 4/12/2025 procedural correction The Sub-batch 3 alphabetized Communications binders document Thurston's 4/12/2025 7:05 AM Saturday email to Milligan/Brady/Treasury staff correcting Milligan's framing of the 4/15/2025 Berman/Bradley Young Capitol meeting: > It appears there has been a miscommunication or misinformed assumption. At no time was I lead to believe this meeting involved the Auditor or that it was to take place in the Auditor's office. I spoke to Mr. Berman directly. I scheduled him to meet with the Treasurer and staff in our offices. > Ja-Po binder, Thurston to Treasurer/Huffman/Burleson/Ellis/O'Neal/Harry, 4/12/2025 7:05:36 AM (Saturday) Milligan's 4/11/2025 2:19 PM email had told Thurston: "Thank you for agreeing to meet with Israel Bonds representatives Mr. Larry Berman, National Managing Director, and Mr. Brad Young, Executive Director – Southeast Regional Office on Tuesday, April 15, 2025, at 11:30 a.m. **in my office located in room 230 of the State Capitol**" and instructed Thurston to "reach out to my Deputy Auditor, Jason Brady, to reschedule a time" if needed. Thurston's correction asserted three substantive procedural facts: (1) the meeting was not an Auditor's-office event; (2) Thurston scheduled Berman directly, not through Brady; (3) the meeting would occur in Treasury offices ("our offices"), not Suite 230 (Auditor's office). Sandra Blount (Executive Assistant to Treasurer Thurston) confirmed the corrected venue to Berman 4/14/2025 with cover note "I apologize for any confusion." The meeting occurred at Treasury Suite 220 conference room. Berman's 4/17/2025 2:40 PM thank-you to Thurston: "Many thanks again for meeting with us earlier this week. Brad and I really enjoyed visiting with you and your whole team. We were very glad to finally be able to meet you in person." The substantive significance: this is the wiki's first documented procedural friction between Thurston and Milligan/Brady on Israel Bonds operations. Thurston pushed back against the Milligan/Brady framing of the meeting as an Auditor's-office event, asserting Treasury direct authority over Berman engagement. The correction does NOT extend to the substantive Israel Bonds purchase decision; the 4/15/2025 meeting at Treasury Suite 220 produced the 4/16/2025 $20M order placement following Berman's pre-set $55M target with Huffman. The procedural correction places Thurston as actively managing the Auditor-Treasury jurisdictional boundary on Israel Bonds engagement, while operationally proceeding with the Israel Bonds purchase pathway that Pulley executed at his order-placer level. ## Other Sub-batch 3 Thurston findings (1) **Berman/Bradley Young November 2024 Little Rock visit met Huffman and Burleson** during Thurston's tenure. The visit was the in-person predecessor to the 4/15/2025 Capitol meeting. Whether Thurston met Berman/Young on the November 2024 visit is not documented. (2) **Berman's 4/17/2025 thank-you to Thurston** previewed future engagement: "I know our CEO Dani Naveh would like to thank you personally, and I will be arranging a time to set up a Zoom call... I know Dani would like to travel to Little Rock as well in the upcoming months." (3) **Hudson Petersen (Director of Political Affairs, Consulate General of Israel to the Southwest U.S.) extended a December 2025 invitation to Thurston to visit Israel** via Sandra Blount on 7/30/2025 — co-extended invitation from "the Consulate, American Israel Friendship League, Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the National Association of State Treasurers." (4) **Thurston attended the May 12, 2025 SBOF meeting** (already documented at Sub-batch 1) where the $20M purchase was reported as "consistent with our historical levels" framing. ## Treasury R3 2-19-26 production: the Feb 17 2026 second Thurston-era Israel Bonds purchase The Treasury R3 (2-19-26) production documents the second documented Thurston-era Israel Bonds purchase: $10M wire transferred Feb 17 2026 for the 13th Series Institutional Jubilee Fixed Rate Bond 5-Year (CUSIP 46515DSQ6, 4.93% coupon, issue date 2/15/2026, maturity 2/1/2031). The transaction was initiated by Berman's 1/14/2026 2:31 PM cold solicitation to Pulley (cc Thurston, Burleson, Huffman, Bradley Young) pitching reinvestment of the 2/1/2026 $5M 8th Institutional Jubilee maturity with explicit "add funds to this maturity" upsell. Pulley accepted approximately 2 hours and 12 minutes later. The wire executed Feb 17 2026 9:34 AM CST (Insalaco input / Cohens approved). The Feb 17 2026 purchase brings Thurston-era cumulative Israel Bonds purchases to **$30M** ($20M May 2025 ladder + $10M Feb 2026 single-tenor). Combined Treasury Israel Bonds residual position at 2/15/2026: **$60M**. The Feb 2026 purchase reverses the 2/1/2026 $5M maturity rolloff that the 10/8/2024 Treasury internal credit memo had predicted would allow the position to decline, and is the second documented substantive override of the 10/8/2024 HOLD recommendation. Thurston is in the cc chain on Berman's 1/14/2026 cold solicitation. The Feb 17 2026 wire is documented under Thurston's tenure but the documentary record does not preserve Thurston-direct correspondence on the 2026 purchase. Whether Thurston was personally consulted on the upsell decision (the choice to deploy $5M of new money on top of the $5M maturity rollover, doubling the maturing position) is not preserved in the production extract. The 2/17/2026 wire Beneficiary Information field reads "Arkansas State Treasury, Israel Jubilee Bond - 5 Year." The transaction is documented under Thurston's institutional authority via the Treasury Main DDA account. Whether Thurston subsequently reports the Feb 2026 purchase to the State Board of Finance, and whether he uses the "consistent with our historical levels" framing previously documented for the May 2025 purchase, is a future ingest target. [[treasury-foia-r3-2-19-26]] source page