But here is a few
By MIKE WILKINSON and JAMES DREW
BLADE STAFF WRITERS
COLUMBUS — Democrats were screaming ''cover-up'' yesterday after state officials admitted that a high-risk hedge fund that the embattled Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation had invested in had lost $215 million in just a few months last year.
The bureau acknowledged that the fund, managed by a Pittsburgh-based investment firm, lost the money between February and September, 2004. MDL Capital Management relinquished control of the fund in November.
...
A spokeman for Gov. Bob Taft said last night that Mr. Taft had been told in September that there was an investment loss at the bureau — a loss of $10 million to $20 million.
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''...The $225 million investment had no value at the end of September,'' the memo stated.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1532130COLUMBUS -- The Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation admitted today that it lost $215 million in a high-risk fund that few people knew about.
The bureau had invested $355 million with a Pittsburgh investment firm, MDL Capital Management, beginning in 1998. But last year, after diverting $225 million into a fund that works like a hedge fund, the fund lost $215 million. Although the bureau has known about the loss since last year, Gov. Bob Taft was notified about it today.
“There are investigations going on, including the Inspector General,” bureau spokesman Jeremy Jackson told The Blade.
. . .
At the center of the MDL deal were Terry Gasper, the former chief financial officer for the bureau, and Jim McLean, the chief investment officer. In a memo to the governor, Tina Kielmeyer, acting bureau administrator, said Mr. Gasper did not notify former bureau Administrator James Conrad about the investment. Mr. McLean was put on paid administrative leave today pending a management review of the situation.
The bureau last year asked the Ohio Attorney General to appoint special counsel in the case and ordered Mr. Gasper to either resign or be fired. He resigned Oct. 6, 2004.
http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050... http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1530406COLUMBUS - Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell was not initially concerned or even shocked that the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation had invested $50 million in rare coins.
In fact, Mr. Blackwell told The Blade on April 5 that "most people" wouldn't find it "unreasonable" that the state had invested in rare coins with Tom Noe, who has said through his attorneys that at least $10 million of the state's assets are missing.
Two months later, Mr. Blackwell told The Blade that the coin scheme carries the "potential smell of organized crime" and needs to be addressed in the federal government.
Opponents, though, say Mr. Blackwell and his Republican colleagues who were in a position to react and avert this problem did not do their jobs.
(snip)
http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/2... http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1524218 http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBU3VYM79E.html COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - A scandal over Ohio's investment in rare coins deepened Thursday as authorities learned that more than $10 million in coins may now be missing. The state said it would prosecute and sue the fund's former manager.
Authorities originally had suspected that coins worth an estimated $400,000 had vanished, but an attorney for the fund manager told inspectors that $10 million to $12 million is missing, the state attorney general's office said.
That is about 20 percent of the $55 million investment by the Bureau of Workers' Compensation, which got into rare coins in the late 1990s as a way to hedge its investments in stocks and bonds.
"Such criminal action is outrageous and will not be tolerated," Gov. Bob Taft said in a news release. "We will pursue all legal avenues possible to recover these funds for injured workers and employers."
The focus of the investigation is Tom Noe, a private coin dealer and Republican donor who led the coin investment. Democrats have alleged that Noe was awarded the state's business in return for campaign contributions to Republicans, who control most of state government.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1503754
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