Why is Cowman (who abetted Noe at theBWC) at the Ohio Teacher's

[salin]

Pension Fund? Older article details this guys egregious abetting of Noe AND says he is now dealing with another pot of state money - this time the teacher's retirement fund.

Were I a teacher in Ohio - I would be pushing my union and others to scream for a review/audit of the teacher retirement fund, given Cowman's involvement.

http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050814/NEWS24/508140356

Cowman per coingate - when an audit cited problems - and how Cowman helped Noe avoid problems and then get the second 25 Million investment:

In his audit, completed in 2000, Mr. Elliott criticized the coin investment and foresaw problems. He questioned the number of loans Mr. Noe's fund gave out and the practice of trading coins among the managers of the subsidiaries that Mr. Noe set up to trade coins for the state.

But Mr. Noe's wishes for more money were granted.

On Jan. 2, 2001, Mr. Cowman gave Mr. Noe a peek at a letter he planned to forward to Mr. Elliott about issues raised in the audit.

He asked Mr. Noe's permission to send the letter.

(whose interest did cowman work for the people of ohio or noe?)

Mr. Elliott, in the audit, also was concerned that the value of the coin fund was difficult to assess because of the esoteric nature of rare coins.

Mr. Cowman responded that the bureau would have to trust Mr. Noe about the fund's value.

salin's comment: why do I push that we keep following this story? Because I really believe it provides a window to how the GOP operates these days - viewing public dollars as pots of political money to give to friends and of which some will return to their political coiffers (campaigns.) I also believe that in one-party states that there is probably a heck of alot of these exact arrangements and scandals just waiting to be uncovered. Think - Florida's employ pension fund... which kept investing in Enron as the stock was tanking... which later bought Edison schools that had a seven year track record of huge losses and only one quarter of profit - and that had less than a year before being bought been nearly delisted by Nasdaq. Following these twists and turns in the Ohio story - and pushing where they are not yet being investigated - helps pull the drapery off of the ugly face of the greedy ole party.

[salin]

1. Article from the Blade - BWC "explain" poor investments

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?Date=20050622&Category=NEWS24&ArtNo=506220335&SectionCat=&Template=printart

States that the head of the BWC (Conrad) gave power of attorney to two top aides to make investments without oversight review - one of those folks was Cowman (now director of investments at the Teacher Retirement Pension Fund).

Towards end of the article:
Mr. Hayes and Ms. Kielmeyer repeatedly laid the blame for the agency's problems at the feet of former bureau officials who "took undue risks and acted beyond the scope of their authority."

Mr. Hayes also criticized former managers without naming names, saying they went "beyond the terms and conditions of their contracts and invested in funds that were contrary what their contract involved."


Given this refers to only two folks who could make contracts (with no supervision) - to whom do we think this refers to? then go back to the earlier linked article that details Cowman's work to abet NOE (covering his mistakes) AND helps Noe get the second 25 Million.

So how big is the "State TEachers Retirement System" of Ohio fund? $48 Billion - 80% invested in house (according to this article) - leaving 20% ? for other "fund managers" - under the direction of Cowman? nearly $10 Billion. Risky, eh?

[salin]

2. Another reason to pay attention to see if paytoplaygate grows

to the School Employees Retirement System

follow this pdf file (end of year report 2004) to page four - picturs and lists officials/ex oficio officers: Look - there is Betty Montgomery and Jim Petro

and there as director of investments - is Robert Cowman.
http://ohsers.org/GD/Storage/8/3/Annual%20Report%202004.pdf

[salin]

3. Cowman, it appears, proposed Noe's first fund

guess he thought it a good and wise investment for the peoples' money.

Mr. Conrad said the rare-coin investment was proposed by Robert Cowman, then the chief investment officer. Mr. Gasper was the chief financial officer.

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050709/NEWS24/50709001

Surely there is more to raise hackles and get folks asking questions about what he may have done since he took over investments for the School Employees Retirement System. And HOW or better yet WHY did he get that job. Bigger pot of money to manage... perhaps he was recommended by a BWC "emerging manager fund" recipient and GOP donor... such as Noe? We know that Noe has made such requests and gotten pay off (the desired appointee, appointed).

Anyone reading this? Is this worthy of exploration? Of discussion? Am I barking up a tree in a forest where noone is to hear it?

[salin]

4. apparenty also is the (only?) one who advocated for the second

$25 Million:

But attorney William C. Wilkinson said Noe told Taft about the investment during a face-to-face meeting in May 2001, about two months before the bureau doubled its original $25 million investment with Noe.

Bureau spokesman Jeremy Jackson said the agency has no record of any lobbying for that investment besides a June 2001 memo from Robert Cowman, the bureau’s former chief investment officer, that advocated the additional funding for Noe.

http://www.timesreporter.com/left.php?ID=44730&r=2

[salin]

5. involved in the capital management losses as well:

$1.3 million more lost in bureau investments

Thursday, June 16, 2005
Diane Suchetka
Plain Dealer Reporter

At the same time a Maryland investment manager was losing millions of dollars in a fraud scheme, the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation allowed him to continue managing $20 million of its money.

In the end, the bureau says, it lost $1.34 million of the $20 million it invested with Chapman Capital Management, a firm owned by Baltimore investment manager Nathan Chapman.

snip

During two of those years, one of Chapman's companies lost about $40 million in clients' money in a well-publicized fraud scheme perpetrated by another bureau investment manager, Alan Brian Bond, according to published reports.

Bond was well known in the investment world. The Harvard Business School graduate appeared regularly on "Wall Street Week With Louis Rukeyser" and other television programs.

He was arrested Aug. 9, 2001, and found guilty on June 9, 2002, of defrauding clients - including Chapman - in a cherry-picking scheme, in which he moved profitable investments to his personal accounts and unprofitable ones to clients' accounts.

snip

Robert Cowman, the bureau's chief investment officer then, was aware of Bond's troubles. On Jan. 7, 2000, he told The Plain Dealer that the bureau had no immediate plans to stop doing business with Bond's company despite his legal problems.

Ohio stopped doing business with Bond by October 2001.

http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/1118914274127160.xml&coll=2&thispage=1



Even if he isn't part of a scheme of corruption (that given his dealings with Noe, is really hard to believe) - than he is an incompetent idiot of an investment manager. Yet, he remains the director of investments for the SERS.

[salin]

6. Full Audit of Coin Fund was discouraged

Review team pushes BWC reforms
Full audit of Noe's coin fund was discouraged, report says

The report states that the bureau ignored warning signs and its own policies when handling investments with Tom Noe, whose $50 million rare-coin funds are missing as much as $13 million, and MDL Capital Management, whose offshore hedge fund lost $215 million.

“The BWC internal auditor was discouraged from conducting a full audit of the Capital Coin Fund,” the report said. “The former CFO and CIO, according to the internal auditor, did not want to place an ‘undue burden’ on Tom Noe.”

Ohio Lottery Director Tom Hayes, who chaired the review team, compared the bureau’s choice to dismiss internal auditor Keith Elliot’s concerns about the coin funds to the recent book Conspiracy of Fools, which documents Enron’s bankruptcy.

“Someone should have listened to Keith Elliot,” Mr. Hayes said. “When people look to maximize profits at the expense of all else, these types of things happen.”

http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?Date=20050824&Category=NEWS24&ArtNo=50824003&SectionCat=NEWS&Template=printart

And who discouraged the audit? In the first posted article on this thread - Robert Cowman. Now in charge of investments with SERS.