Angelides Urges Pension Funds to Sell CACI Shares

Public pension funds should sell their shares of CACI International Inc., which supplies interrogators to the U.S. Army, because of the prisoner abuse scandal in Iraq, California Treasurer Phil Angelides said.

Even though CACI and its employees have not been charged with wrongdoing, the harm to its reputation from the scandal has contributed to a decline in the stock, Angelides said at a meeting with company executives and officials from the California Public Employees’ Retirement System and the California State Teachers’ Retirement System.

An interrogator employed by Arlington, Va.-based CACI was linked to abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison in a report by U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Antonio M. Taguba. Shares of CACI have declined 12.3% since the news of the report was made public April 28. Photos of naked, bound Iraqi prisoners sparked outrage worldwide and fueled Iraqi opposition to the U.S. occupation.

“CACI needs to get out of this business or pension funds need to get out of CACI,” Angelides said during the meeting.

Taguba’s report accused a CACI employee of instructing military police to use unauthorized interrogation techniques. The company has said that none of its workers had been formally accused and that its workers in Iraq were under U.S. military control.

CACI shares fell 68 cents to $40.43 on the New York Stock Exchange.