No Matching Funds For Thousands In Bright Start Savings Program
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (CBS) -- Because its Web site wasn't updated, several participants in the Bright Start college savings program will not be getting the matching donations they expected.
Participants in the program had been told that deposits of up to $250 in a savings account would be matched dollar for dollar. The offer was limited the first 2,500 people to sign up.
But the Web site for the program was not displaying up-to-date information, and indicated that matching money was still available even after all 2,500 slots had been filled.
Now, the office of Illinois Treasurer Dan Rutherford has had to tell thousands of participants in the program that they will not be getting any matching money.
A spokeswoman for Rutherford says they're not sure how many people were affected. The office is working with Oppenheimer Funds to figure out what went wrong.
The Bright Start program has been maligned since its inception, after many participants lost money.
The program lost nearly tens of millions of dollars, as participants invested in Oppenheimer's Core Plus Fixed Income Strategy. The fund was believed to be a low-risk investment, but one parent, Joseph Spinoli, accused Oppenheimer in 2009 of taking "very risky bets on the mortgage derivatives" and thus losing half the money.
Then-State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias took heat for the Bright Start meltdown, and the woes dogged him throughout his campaign for U.S. Senate last year. He ended up losing to U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.)
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