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James Diossa, General Treasurer PHOTO: FILE<\/p>\nDiossa Invested $30 Million of Pension Funds in a Firm Linked to Algorithm-Driven Company Tied to Rent Increases<\/p>\n
James Diossa, General Treasurer PHOTO: FILE<\/p>\n
Starting in 2022, investigations, lawsuits, and Congressional reviews targeted RealPage, an algorithm-driven software company accused of driving up rental costs nationwide. The company RealPage is owned by Thoma Bravo.<\/p>\n
As investigations and allegations mounted, Rhode Island General Treasurer James Diossa green-lighted a $30 million investment by the Employees’ Rhode Island Retirement Fund in Thoma Bravo in 2024.<\/p>\n
Diossa refuses to answer questions about the investment.<\/p>\n
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE — SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST<\/a><\/p>\n His spokesperson seemed unaware of the issues or, initially, of a federal lawsuit against RealPage.<\/p>\n GoLocal asked Diossa\u2019s spokesperson, Carla Rojo, about the investment in Thoma Bravo and the review process.<\/p>\n In response to GoLocal’s questions, \u00a0Rojo wrote on Monday:<\/p>\n The staff recommendation was approved by the State Investment Commission in May 2024, several months before a complaint [U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit] was filed.\u00a0<\/p>\n All proposed investments undergo thorough due diligence and careful deliberation in accordance with approved investment policy statements and established compliance procedures.\u00a0<\/p>\n If you need anything else, please let me know.\u00a0<\/p>\n Thanks!<\/p>\n Carla C. Rojo<\/p>\n Director of Communications<\/p>\n Office of RI General Treasurer James A. Diossa<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n GoLocal asked in follow-ups about the \u201cdue diligence and careful deliberation\u201d and pointed out that a basic Google search would unveil dozens of articles, United States Senate action, actions by 17 members of the House of Representativem a civil lawsuit by renters, and coverage of federal investigations by both the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and the United States Department of Justice prior to the approval of the investment by Diossa’s team.<\/p>\n Rojo is correct that the U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit, joined by eight states, was filed shortly after the pension fund investment, but the investment occurred years after the press coverage, Congressional action, and the announcement of a Department of Justice investigation.<\/p>\n Rojo refused to answer multiple questions, including, \u201cDoes Treasurer Diossa think that the AI-driven tech companies like RealPage are not a factor in spiraling rents in America?\u201d<\/p>\n It should be noted that during these investigations and lawsuits, RealPage has repeatedly denied engaging in any illegal activity.<\/p>\n Just a couple of months after the state’s investment, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a civil lawsuit against RealPage.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cRealPage has built a business out of frustrating the natural forces of vigorous competition,\u201d said Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter at a news conference in August of 2024 with top department officials. \u201cThe time has come to stop this illegal conduct.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe learned that the modern machinery of algorithms and AI can be even more effective than the smoke-filled rooms of the past,\u201d Kanter said in 2024, referring to artificial intelligence. \u201cYou don\u2019t need a Ph.D. to know that algorithms can make coordination among competitors easier.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Members of Congress Cite Claims That RealPage Has Created a \u201cCartel\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n In November of 2022, ProPublica reported:<\/a><\/p>\n Seventeen Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives sent a letter Monday to the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission asking the agencies to investigate RealPage\u2019s rent-setting software. In an Oct. 15 story, ProPublica detailed how\u00a0RealPage\u2019s pricing algorithm uses competitor data<\/a>\u00a0to suggest new prices daily for available apartments.<\/p>\n In the\u00a0letter<\/a>, Reps. Jes\u00fas \u201cChuy\u201d Garc\u00eda and Jan Schakowsky, both from Illinois, and other Democratic leaders said that if big property managers and RealPage formed a cartel to artificially inflate rents and decrease the supply of apartments, they could face \u201cpotential criminal prosecution.\u201d<\/p>\n But the genesis of the investigations into RealPage\u2019s business strategy and technology goes back five years earlier.<\/a> In 2017, Steve Winn, RealPage\u2019s then-CEO, talked about how leaving apartments empty could help drive profitability.<\/p>\n \u201cDuring an earnings call in 2017, Winn said one large property company, which managed more than 40,000 units, learned it could make more profit by operating at a lower occupancy level that \u2018would have made management uncomfortable before,\u2019 he said,\u201d reported ProPublica.<\/p>\n ProPublica recapped the RealPages business model in a 2022<\/a> article:<\/p>\n On a summer day last year, a group of real estate tech executives gathered at a conference hall in Nashville to boast about one of their company\u2019s signature products: software that uses a mysterious algorithm to help landlords push the highest possible rents on tenants.<\/p>\n \u201cNever before have we seen these numbers,\u201d said Jay Parsons, a vice president of RealPage, as conventiongoers wandered by. Apartment rents had recently shot up by as much as 14.5%, he said in a video touting the company\u2019s services. Turning to his colleague, Parsons asked: What role had the software played?<\/p>\n The chair of a U.S. Senate committee asked the Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday to review whether a Texas-based property tech company\u2019s rent-setting software violates antitrust laws.<\/p>\n The move comes after ProPublica\u00a0published an investigation<\/a>\u00a0Oct. 15 into RealPage\u2019s pricing software, which suggests new rents daily to landlords for all available units in a building. Critics say the software may be helping big landlords operate as a cartel to push rents above competitive levels in some markets.<\/p>\n \u201cAlarmingly, recent reporting by ProPublica highlighted that RealPage\u2019s algorithm-based price optimization software, YieldStar, is being used by a growing number of property managers and landlords, potentially impacting pricing and the supply of homes in the rental market,\u201d said\u00a0the letter signed by U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown<\/a>, the Ohio Democrat who chairs the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. \u201cRenters should have the power to negotiate fairly priced housing, free from illicit collusion and deceptive pricing techniques.\u201d<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/RealPage-ProPublica-Senator-Brown-Letter.png\")
IMAGES: Headline of ProPublica News Articles and a Copy of a Letter by Then-U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH)<\/p>\n