Coin of the Republican Realm
May 27th, 2005 at 10:44 am by Susie
This is getting good, and Democrats should slam them hard:
The director of Ohio’s workers compensation bureau is resigning amid a growing scandal over millions of dollars missing from a rare coin investment fund, Gov. Bob Taft said Friday.Neither workers comp Administrator James Conrad nor any member of his staff told the governor about the state’s investment in coins, Taft said. When questions were raised in April, agency officials told Taft the investment was profitable and safe.
State officials had said Thursday they plan to sue coin dealer Tom Noe and seek criminal charges after his attorney told them that about $10 million of the state’s $55 million investment in rare coins is missing.
I wonder if Kenneth “No Paper Trail” Blackwell somehow has his fingers in this?
Blackwell is on record offering support to Tom Noe, but his role, if any, is very small. Blackwell may well benefit from the scandal in the short term, though. He has been Secretary of State for most of the coin investment period and would have had little to do with the oversight of the Bureau of Worker Compensation. His primary challengers for governor, Jim Petro and Betty Montgomery, have been the Attorney General and Auditor duing the period (they switched offices in 2002) and would have been responsible for at least some oversight responsibilities for the operation of the bureau and its investments. It is unlikely Petro and Montgomery will escape from this unharmed.