Ohio: The Heads are rolling now. Not.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

COLUMBUS - The investment scandal at the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation escalated yesterday as Gov. Bob Taft purged one of his high-ranking employees for keeping him out of the loop about a $215 million loss in the months leading to the presidential election.

Yesterday was James Samuel's final day in the governor's office, said Mark Rickel, Mr. Taft's press secretary.

"He made a very critical mistake in not passing along information on the size of the MDL loss," Mr. Rickel said.

The bureau confirmed June 7 that a high-risk hedge fund that it invested in through Pittsburgh-based MDL Capital Management had lost $215 million in just a few months last year.

On June 8, an e-mail surfaced that James Conrad, the bureau's former administrator-CEO, wrote to Mr. Samuel on Oct. 26, 2004, explaining that the "entire value" of the hedge fund that MDL managed had been lost.

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050618/NEWS24/50618003

[ReadTomPaine]

1. Do you think the investigation is going to stop at Samuel?

I'm not so sure. If there is even the slightest pressure on this investigation, it can reach quite far.

[Botany]

2. This story goes to blackwell and bush .......

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050615/NEWS24/50615005
Wine missing?
Investigators from the Jefferson County, Colo., Sheriff’s Office on June 3 took custody of 3,500 bottles of wine valued at $500,000, and seized hundreds of rare coins, 265 Cuban cigars, computers, and documents from Mr. Storeim’s home and office as part of a criminal investigation.

to sum up known facts as of 6/15/05
Ohio workers comp lost 215 million in a republican run hedge fund ..... the repug Gov. of Ohio found out about this in Oct. '04 but kept it from the
public until after the election .... the same worker's comp program invested in coins and baseball cards sold by republican pioneer Tom Noe ...... Noe
also owned the company that put the value on the coins & cards ...... at least 50 million was spent on these collectables which were over valued by
at least 15 million ..... Noe was also connected to the Ohio Turnpike commission ...... which recently fired all state employees and replaced them w/
private contractors (less oversight for Money laundering ????) .... he was also connected to the Lucas County Board of elections by his wife ...... Lucas county
had voting machines "lock up" on 11/2/04 in democratic precincts .... had computers with voter data bases stolen from the Kerry HQs ...... a couple that had
lived in the same house from 1960 and voted at the same place since 1960 had to vote provisionally because they were no longer registered ..... all members of
the Lucas County BOE had to resign after the election ....... Congressman Sherrod Brown (D) Lorain, OH is on record as saying, "This calls into question the
outcome of the election." ....... and now a house in Colorado with evidence from the coin scam in Ohio is broken into and the evidence has disappeared ......

...... If I went to a producer in Hollywood and tried to sell this story how do you think it would go?

[SpiralHawk]

5. Nice synopsis, Botany

Thanks and kick.

[rateyes]

3. After reading that story,..

I've got to say that "I smell a scape-goat with a golden parachute." It says that he was "de-moted" with a $4,000 a year cut in salary---If he was guilty of what they said he was guilty of---he would have been fired outright---who in the world would want working for them, ANYWHERE, such an incompetent person. For the Governor to say that he didn't know doesn't pass the giggle test.

"maybe I did. maybe I didn't..." Maybe I'm paranoid, but it sounds like with a statement like that he was giving someone time to make up their minds about his further employment.

This is all just speculation. But, if it looks, and smells like a rat......

[jimshoes]

4. As an Ohio resident and business owner

having paid regularly into the Ohio BWC I would like to have someone held accountable for these ungodly losses. I get the feeling that this could just be the tip of the iceberg as far as corrupt republican politics is concerned.