The effort by Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt and State Treasurer Todd Russ to steer a lucrative state investment contract to one of the governor’s longtime yes-men has been foiled… for now.
Over the weekend, 311 Capital – the Stitt-crony-backed investment group that “won” a bid from the Governor and State Treasurer’s office to manage up to billions of dollars in state investments – announced it has officially withdrawn its offer to serve as advisor for the Invest in Oklahoma program.
The sudden retreat came about a week after AG Gentner Drummond threatened to stop the contract from going into effect, and just days before Oklahoma Watch was set to report on a new little wrinkle to the billion-dollar buddy deal…
Via Oklahoma Watch:
A campaign donation to Oklahoma Treasurer Todd Russ from the owner of an investment firm that won a state bid further complicated the state’s Invest in Oklahoma program and may have led to the firm pulling out of the process.
A letter from 311 Capital Management LLC sent Friday to the five-member Invest in Oklahoma board said the company could no longer pursue a potentially lucrative investment advisory role to invest a portion of the state’s $45 billion in pension, trust and endowment assets in Oklahoma-based private equity and venture capital funds.
The letter came just days after Oklahoma Watch asked about a $2,500 campaign donation in February 2025 to Russ from Bond Payne, the owner of Citizen Capital LLC and the parent company of 311 Capital.
Federal securities rules prohibit investment firms from seeking state pension advisory roles if an employee or other associate donated to an elected official with a role in approving a contract. The so-called pay-to-play rule has a two-year lockout period on receiving compensation under such investment advisory contracts.
Before I say or write anything else, I’d like to give a TLO Attaboy to Paul Monies and Oklahoma Watch for their excellent reporting on this matter.
Yes, I know this will only further inflate Ted Streuli’s ego, but if you want to see good journalism in action, check out all of their reports on this billion-dollar buddy deal. If it weren’t for them, we may have never known that Stitt and Co. were orchestrating this grift right in broad daylight.
On the flip side, if you want to see bad journalism in action – and how Oklahoma’s powerful, connected grifters can influence, shape and soften local media coverage – you can check out News 9 instead.
In case you didn’t know, the station’s owner, David Griffin, is friends with Bond Payne and has occasionally been spotted at Payne’s high-net-worth social club – The Citizen House. On top of that, the station’s political analyst, Jason Dunnington, is also one of the lobbyists connected to parties involved in the deal.
Naturally and not surprisingly, the station framed the story from 311 Capital’s point of view, virtually ignoring the glaring evidence of cronyism and making the company sound less like the beneficiary of a Stitt and Co. buddy deal and more like the poor, innocent victim of a political hit job.
311 Capital Management has withdrawn its bid to manage state funds due to an ongoing controversy and threats of a lawsuit from Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond…
The dispute between Oklahoma State Treasurer Todd Russ and Drummond stems from the Invest in Oklahoma program, an initiative to encourage more of Oklahoma’s investment dollars to stay within the state. The mission was to keep those funds in Oklahoma, rather than Wall Street or with out-of-state companies.
Drummond sent a letter to Russ earlier this month, stating that 311 Capital did not meet the qualifications to manage Invest in Oklahoma funds. That letter stated the firm didn’t have enough of a track record, and alleged a conflict of interest, since there were ties to a former staffer for Governor Kevin Stitt, and Stitt voted on the contract.
In a letter dated Friday, May 15, 2026, Steve McDonnold, Managing Director for 311 Capital, disputed the Attorney General’s claims and said the firm is declining the contract and withdrawing its bid.
“Based on the merits, I believe that 311 Capital Management was the right choice to be the Advisor to the Board, and that 311 Capital Management followed the applicable rules and bid procedures. Nevertheless, to avoid harm to the Invest in Oklahoma program, we are declining the contract award and withdrawing our bid to the Invest in Oklahoma Board.”
Yep. That’s right!
According to News 9’s framing, 311 Capital wasn’t a politically connected firm backing away after Oklahoma Watch uncovered blatant cronyism and that they may have violated federal securities rules. They were simply good-hearted Oklahoma businessmen stepping aside to protect the integrity of the program. What heroes, huh?
Anyway, you can read more about this over at Oklahoma Watch or even News 9.
Now that Citizen Capital / 311 Capital got all mixed up and waved the white flag on this deal, it will be interesting to see how Stitt and Co. move forward.
For example, will they quietly try to revive the deal under a different name, find another friendly firm to funnel the contract toward, or simply move on to a new grifter scheme that benefits all the right people?
Regardless, we’ll be here to follow it.
Stay with The Lost Ogle. We’ll keep you advised.
