# Auditor's Office FOIA Production R1, Spadoni Custodian (FOIA Response 6-18-25) A 29-file production from the Wendy Spadoni custodian within the ATRS R1 FOIA response. Spadoni is Executive Assistant to Auditor Dennis Milligan. Total 18 PDFs, 10 DOCX attachments, and 1 XLSX attachment, covering the period 10/23/2024 through 5/16/2025. The materials substantially expand the documentary record about the scope of the Auditor's office Israel Bonds outreach. Where prior batches (ATRS Staff Emails, Brady, Milligan custodians) documented contact between the Auditor and the two pension systems (ATRS and APERS), this batch documents that the April 14-15, 2025 trip Lawrence Berman and Brad Young made to Little Rock was a two-day multi-stop Capitol tour with eight scheduled meetings spanning both pension systems, both legislative chambers' leadership, the State Treasurer, and two cabinet secretaries. The Auditor's office also approached the Governor's office (declined). This batch is the first documentation of the scope. ## File catalog **The October 2024 outreach (4 PDFs)**: October 23 (the seed message in three captures from Spadoni's mailbox via Cc) plus October 29 (Spadoni's outreach to Governor Sanders' office on 10/24, declined on 10/29). **The DCI promotional inflow (1 PDF)**: December 26, 2024, Brady forwarding Behling's "Private & Exclusive Briefing" invitation to Milligan and Spadoni. **The April 2025 trip orchestration (15 PDFs plus 10 DOCX attachments)**: - April 7 (2 PDFs): Brady drafting an "Informal letter to Sen. Dotson and Rep. Warren on fancy stationary" for Spadoni to format and send under Milligan's signature. - April 8: Sec. Jim Hudson (DFA) confirming the meeting after asking "Topic?" first. - April 9: Spadoni coordinating with Robin Voss in the Speaker's office to add Rep. Les Warren to the Speaker Brian Evans meeting. - April 11 (multiple): Six separate Milligan-signed meeting confirmations to different officials (Hudson, White, Thurston, Bassett, with Berman's bio attached); plus Berman's reply to Spadoni with the full schedule and Amy Fecher's confirmation. The 10 DOCX attachments are duplicated copies of the Berman bio (62KB) and Young bio (685KB) sent with each separate confirmation. - April 15 (2 PDFs): Berman forwarding the Israel Bonds Institutional Rate Sheet for April 15-30 to Spadoni at 8:23 AM the morning of the meetings; the rate sheet PDF itself. **The April 2025 follow-up (1 PDF)**: April 16 (filed under May 16, 2025 in the Spadoni production). Berman thanked Spadoni for the trip and Brad Young requested a contact list for follow-up thank-you notes. The xlsx attachment is the contact list Spadoni sent. ## What this batch establishes ### The scope of the political outreach Per Spadoni's 4/11/2025 1:52 PM email to Berman, the trip schedule was: **Monday, April 14, 2025** - 9:00 to 9:30 AM: Amy Fecher, APERS - 9:45 to 10:15 AM: Speaker Brian Evans and Rep. Les Warren - Lunch: Auditor Milligan and Jason Brady (with Berman/Young) - 1:15 to 1:30 PM: Sec. Daryl Bassett (Department of Labor and Licensing) **Tuesday, April 15, 2025** - 8:00 to 8:30 AM: Sen. Bart Hester, President Pro Tempore - 10:00 to 10:30 AM: Mark White, ARTRS - 11:30 to 12:00 PM: Treasurer John Thurston - Lunch - 2:00 to 2:30 PM: Secretary Jim Hudson, Department of Finance and Administration Eight scheduled meetings. The previous wiki documentation focused on the Mark White meeting as the operational link to the eventual Resolution 2025-22. The full schedule shows that the Berman/Young trip was a comprehensive political tour. Notably, John Thurston as Treasurer is the statutory ex officio member of the ATRS Investment Committee per BP1 Section XII; this is the first documented meeting between Thurston and DCI representatives. The companion concept page [[auditor-multi-official-capitol-tour]] develops this further. ### Brady ghost-writing for Milligan The 4/7/2025 email from Brady to Spadoni (cc to Berman) provides the draft text of an "Informal letter to Sen. Dotson and Rep. Warren on fancy stationary" with the signature line "Dennis Milligan." The drafted text contains: "I worked with and have know Mr. Berman and Israel Bonds since my time in the State Treasury when the Legislature allowed me to purchase bonds of Israel." This documents two facts not in any prior batch. First, Milligan personally purchased Israel bonds during his Treasurer tenure (a step beyond the framing in the 10/23/2024 outreach that he merely "requested the legislature to pass legislation"). Second, Milligan has had a personal relationship with Berman since that time. The Auditor's-office-as-DCI-channel concept becomes sharper: it is not a neutral intermediary role; it is the activation of a long-standing personal relationship between the constitutional officer and the DCI institutional sales lead. See the updated [[auditor-as-dci-channel]] concept page and [[dennis-milligan]] entity page. ### The April 15 rate sheet handover Lawrence Berman emailed Spadoni at 8:23 AM on 4/15/2025, less than two hours before the 10:00 AM meeting with Mark White, forwarding the "12th Series Institutional Offering Rate Sheet April 15th - April 30th." The forwarded internal DCI email from Luis Jimenez (Associate Director, National Sales) was addressed to ".City Directors" and other DCI staff, with cc to Berman, Stuart Garawitz, Ana Torres, Ethan Behling, and Bill Mulvey. Internal text: "Keep in mind that all sales should be reviewed by Larry, Stuart or myself." The rate sheet attachment lists the 12th Series Jubilee Fixed Rate Institutional Bonds available 4/15 to 4/30/2025: 2-year 4.27%, 3-year 4.66%, 5-year 5.17%, 10-year 5.68%, 15-year 5.93%. CUSIPs: 46514XY78 (3yr), 46514X2P3 (5yr), 46514X3P2 (10yr), 46514X4P1 (15yr), 46514X5P0 (one of these, ordering unclear from the OCR). Minimum subscription $500,000 with $100,000 increments above $500,000. The legal disclaimer specifies the bonds are sold only to "(i) a state or political subdivision thereof, an agency or instrumentality of a state or any political subdivision thereof, or any municipal corporate instrumentality of one or more states; or (ii) an institution that is an 'accredited investor.'" Marked "CONFIDENTIAL Private Placement to Qualified Entities Not for public distribution." The 5.68% 10-year rate is consistent with the rate Matt Waz of Reams later cited on 5/28/2025 ("ISRAEL 5.625 2/35 in the 130 spread to 10yr US Treasuries area"). The rate sheet was current sales material handed over the morning of the ATRS meeting. ### The 4/16 thank-you and the contact list Berman wrote to Spadoni on 4/16/2025 at 2:22 PM: "extremely successful and fun trip thanks to all the efforts made by you, Jason and of course the Auditor. We are extremely lucky and grateful to have such good friends." Brad Young separately requested a contact list for follow-up thank-you notes. Spadoni sent the xlsx attachment containing 9 Arkansas officials with full contact information. The list serves as DCI's permanent record of the tour participants, useful for ongoing institutional sales follow-up. ### The Sanders meeting that did not happen On 10/24/2024 Spadoni emailed Erica Freeman in Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders' scheduling office: "Dennis Milligan, Auditor of State, would like to request a 5-minute cameo with the Governor on November 5th to introduce a gentleman with Israel Bonds." Freeman replied 10/29/2024: "We do no currently have Governor Sanders scheduled to be in the Capitol on November 5." No further follow-up appears in the production. This is the first documented contact between the Auditor's office and the Governor's office about Israel Bonds. It pre-dates the April 2025 trip by five months and was for the November 2024 trip Brady's 10/23 email was setting up. The Governor's office did not engage; the meeting did not occur per this record. ## What this batch does not contain No record of the November 2024 in-person meeting with Berman that the original Brady outreach was setting up (the outreach mentioned planned dates of November 4-7 or 28-29 plus the day before Thanksgiving). The October 29 Sanders decline is the latest November 2024 dated entry. The DCI promotional inflow resumes on 12/26/2024. The narrative gap between November 2024 and December 2024 in the Spadoni custodian production parallels the same gap in the Milligan production. Either the November meetings did not occur as planned (only the Sanders decline is documented), or they occurred but generated no email correspondence in this custodian, or the FOIA producer did not include those records. No record of communication between the Auditor's office and the State Bank Commissioner (the other statutory ex officio member of the ATRS Investment Committee). The Spadoni-orchestrated April tour scheduled the Treasurer (Thurston) but apparently not the Bank Commissioner. No documentation of meeting outcomes from the April 14-15 tour beyond the 4/16 follow-up thank-you exchange. Whether any of the eight meetings produced specific commitments, follow-up actions, or substantive deliberations is not in this batch. ## Evidence > "Below is your schedule for Monday and Tuesday: Monday, April 14, 2025 / 9:00 - 9:30 Amy Fecher, APERS / 9:45 - 10:15 Speaker Brian Evans and Rep. Les Warren / Lunch Auditor Milligan and Jason Brady / 1:15-1:30 Sec. Darryl Bassett / Tuesday, April 15, 2025 / 8:00 - 8:30 Sen. Bart Hester, President Pro Tempore / 10:00 - 10:30 Mark White, ARTRS / 11:30 - 12:00 Treasurer John Thurston / Lunch / 2:00 - 2:30 Secretary Jim Hudson, Department of Finance and Administration" > Wendy Spadoni to Lawrence Berman, April 11, 2025 - 4.pdf p.2, 4/11/2025 1:52 PM > "I worked with and have know Mr. Berman and Israel Bonds since my time in the State Treasury when the Legislature allowed me to purchase bonds of Israel. I know we both share a very deep love and respect for the State of Israel." > Jason Brady drafting letter for Dennis Milligan signature, April 7, 2025 - 2.pdf p.1, 4/7/2025 > "Keep in mind that all sales should be reviewed by Larry, Stuart or myself." > Luis Jimenez internal DCI rate sheet email, April 15, 2025.pdf p.1, 4/15/2025 6:35 AM > "JUBILEE FIXED RATE INSTITUTIONAL BONDS / BOND INTEREST RATE / 2-Year 4.27% / 3-Year 4.66% / 5-Year 5.17% / 10-Year 5.68% / 15-Year 5.93%" > April 15, 2025 - attachment.pdf, Israel Bonds 12th Series Institutional Offering Rate Sheet 4/15/2025 to 4/30/2025 > "Minimum Subscription $500,000 and Integral multiples of $100,000 in excess of $500,000... CONFIDENTIAL Private Placement to Qualified Entities Not for public distribution" > April 15, 2025 - attachment.pdf > "extremely successful and fun trip thanks to all the efforts made by you, Jason and of course the Auditor. We are extremely lucky and grateful to have such good friends." > Lawrence Berman to Wendy Spadoni, May 16, 2025.pdf p.2, 4/16/2025 2:22 PM > "Dennis Milligan, Auditor of State, would like to request a 5-minute cameo with the Governor on November 5th to introduce a gentleman with Israel Bonds." > Wendy Spadoni to Erica Freeman (Governor's office), October 29, 2024.pdf p.1, 10/24/2024 2:30 PM > "We do no currently have Governor Sanders scheduled to be in the Capitol on November 5." > Erica Freeman to Wendy Spadoni, October 29, 2024.pdf p.1, 10/29/2024 5:47 PM ## Cross-References [[atrs-foia-r1-staff-emails]] [[auditor-foia-r1-brady]] [[auditor-foia-r1-milligan]] companion source pages from the same FOIA response [[wendy-spadoni]] entity page (created from this batch) [[john-thurston]] [[brian-evans]] [[les-warren]] [[bart-hester]] [[daryl-bassett]] [[jim-hudson]] [[sarah-huckabee-sanders]] [[erica-freeman]] [[robin-voss]] [[luis-jimenez]] new entities introduced by this batch [[auditor-multi-official-capitol-tour]] new concept page developed from this batch [[dennis-milligan]] [[jason-brady]] [[lawrence-berman]] [[brad-young]] [[stuart-garawitz]] [[mark-white]] entities updated with this batch's evidence [[auditor-as-dci-channel]] [[dci-promotional-pipeline]] companion concept pages updated with this batch's evidence