New charge in Ohio investment scandal

New charge in Ohio investment scandal

	Published : Tue, 06 Feb 2007 16:33 By : Agencies Print this Story

CLEVELAND (AFX) - An investment marketer gave cash and other gifts to the former chief financial officer at the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation in exchange for agency business, federal prosecutors said.

Clarke Blizzard, 53, has been charged with one count of conspiring to bribe Terrence Gasper, according to a bill of information filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Cleveland. A bill of information typically is filed when the defendant is cooperating with investigators.

Blizzard represented companies that received hundreds of millions of dollars in bureau investment business in return for about $20,000 in bribes from 1998 to 2004, according to the court document.

Blizzard, who lives in Florida, made $2.5 million in fees and commissions from the BWC investments he handled, prosecutors allege.

The gifts included $9,005 in 2004 for Gasper's son's college tuition, $2,300 in 2002 to Gasper's girlfriend, sports and theater tickets, and a fishing trip, U.S. Attorney Greg White said.

Gasper pleaded guilty in June to federal and state charges that he accepted bribes in exchange for doling out agency business. He could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison but is likely to get far less in exchange for testifying against others involved in the scandal.

In a trial last year in Akron, Gasper testified against two Cleveland-area investment brokers who were acquitted of federal charges that they bribed Gasper in exchange for workers' comp business.

Gasper was in charge of the bureau's multibillion dollar investment portfolio from 1995 through October 2004, when he resigned.

The investment scandal at the state insurance fund for injured workers has been a black eye for Ohio Republicans, with Democrats capitalizing on the controversy to help them regain the governor's mansion and other statewide offices in the November election.

The scandal started with coin dealer and GOP fundraiser Tom Noe, who was convicted last year of stealing from a $50 million rare-coin investment that he managed for the workers' comp bureau. He was sentenced to 18 years in prison and ordered to repay the state $13.7 million.

The scandal also led to ethics charges against former Gov. Bob Taft, who pleaded no contest to failing to report gifts, and aides to Taft.

A federal-state task force continues to investigate matters related to workers' comp investments, Ohio Inspector General Thomas Charles said Monday.