More on “Coin Gate:”
The scandal starts back in 1997, when the state’s Bureau of Workers Compensation, which provides workplace injury insurance for Ohio’s workers, decided to start an “emerging managers” program that would allow outside managers to invest some of the fund’s $18 billion in assets. With then-Governor George Voinovich’s direct appointee at BWC calling the shots on who got the money, the $500 million set aside for the program offered a jackpot of prime contracts that could be doled out to supporters. In all, one hundred fifty-four fund managers were contracted to invest BWC money under Voino
Gary Farber
Clearly you don’t understand the goodness that comes from government investing in the private sector.
;-)
(And, of course, if Social Security went this way, nothing like this could ever happen. Just saying.
Marcus Wellby
I think incompetence is the wrong word — seems a rather competent attempt to scam, unless you mean the incompetence in how the scam was carried out.
By the way, if anyone here has a little cash they would like to invest, I have an almost complete set of the Frankin Mint Civil War Chess set. I would be happy to speak with all potential investors. You cannot see these peices, as they are stashed in warehouses all around the country. But trust me, they are ALL accounted for. I can guarentee they will not ever be lost in delivery, though as to whether a dog may or may not eat one, or other such acts of God, I can make no promises.
Jon H
Yesterday was Donaldson’s last day as head of the SEC.
I suspect I know who Bush would consider the ideal replacement… Tom Noe!
Jon H
Good idea, Marcus.
I would like to open bidding on a signed first edition of “Yesterday I Saw The Sun”, by Ally Sheedy, in excellent condition.
Christie S.
The Toledo Blade has been running a series of articles on Noe and Coingate for quite a while.
Very well written, IMHO. Check their archives for more.
Johno
I talked to my dad last night (lives in OH), and he tells me that everyone’s state workers’ comp fund taxes are… guess what… going up in the wake of the scandal. Naturally.
I’m from there, I halfway love the place, but I gotta say… Ohio gets the leaders it deserves.
Shawn
I’ve been keeping up with the Toledo Blade’s coverage of this for several months. They should get an award for their investigative reporting. They’ve uncovered a lot of corruption. Coingate seems to be just the tip of the iceberg. I’m not in the mood to dig around in the muck for a link right now, but I seem to remember an article about the Ohio state retirement plan getting screwed over too.
Don
Marcus Welby beat me to it, sort of – this isn’t incompetence, it’s THEFT. Theft from every Ohio taxpayer. (and arguably all of us since Federal money finds its way to States)
CalDevil
A $10 – $12 million loss is significant and if caused by Republican incompetence or corruption needs to be called out and punished. It can’t and shouldn’t be excused or dismissed. Investing taxpayer $ on rare coins, let alone getting scammed on the deal, simply reeks of incompetence.
However, this story seems to be getting an inordinate amount of play when compared to another brewing Ohio scandal that I would not even bring up but for all of the coin mania going on. It involves oh, only about 20 times as much Ohio taxpayer money lossed due to fraud and/or incompetence.
That’s right. Ohio taxpayers have lost $215 million in a hedge fund scheme gone awry. The reason that many might not have heard about it is that it’s not of much interest to the columnists, bloggers (err, excuse me, web magazine proprietors), and pundits who have a hard time tying this to either the national or state GOP.
You guessed it. This is a Dem scandal through and through. It involves a Dem hedge fund manager and a Dem commisioner who insisted on lax oversight of his pal. The commisioner in question, George Forbes, is a longtime Dem pol from Cleveland. In fact, as taxpayer losses mounted, Mr. Forbes told state authorities to “give MDL (the hedge fund) a break.”
Now that Ohio taxpayers are out $215 million thanks to MDL and their political benefactors, the details are all coming to the surface, including that one Mildred Forbes, yes, the daughter of George Forbes, was the Chief Compliance Officer of MDL. Can you say “conflict of interest”?
Dem legislators and lobbyists also play key roles in the scandal. Feel free to get educated about this one.
toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050609/NEWS24/50609003
post-gazette.com/pg/05160/518267.stm
toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050616/NEWS24/506160430&SearchID=73212776569824
toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050614/NEWS24/50614002&SearchID=73212776569824
Sojourner
So let’s privatize Social Security!!! That way, everyone can get ripped off.
Matt Hurley
Of course, what the Toledo Blade conveniently leaves out of their coverage is the Democrats who are involved.
CoinGate itself is a perfect example of Republican stupidity that could have been avoided entirely if the leadership had listened to Ken Blackwell who proposed legislation that would have stopped the insanity before it started.
Thrown in under the CoinGate banner, is an investment scandal worth many millions more thanCoinGate itself. This is where the democrat involvement is being swept under the rug. There was a Democrat who recently stepped down from his position on the BWC board. The reason he quit: his daughter a job with the company that lost all this money and he took contributions from them.
And while we’re at it, perhaps some of these Ohio liberals should Google the name Mark Lay and see which closets it leads to…