CORRUPTION TAX: A scoreboard from Dennis Shreefer's campaign site

Dennis Shreefer is a candidate for Ohio 4th District State Representative (Allen County). He has received the endorsement of the Ohio Federation of Teachers.

http://www.4shreefer.com/index.html

You’ve heard the term ‘sin tax’ – well, Ohioans pay a ‘corruption tax’. Every time officials or one of their insider pals dip into the taxpayer till, it’s your money they’re grabbing. And have they ever been grabbing it because of one-party rule and lax oversight.

When you elect me as your 4th District State Representative, the party’s over for the sleaze element in Columbus and one more hidden tax disappears.

As much as I’d like to include Ohio congressmen, Mike Oxley (who may still get nailed in the Freddie Mac scandal), Bob Ney and John Boehner in this mix (they all richly deserve to be there) for space considerations, I’m limiting my all-star huckster lineup to just state officials.

CORRUPTION SCOREBOARD
(Keep scrolling – it’ll take awhile)

Thumbnails of what they’ve been doing behind your back

● BOB TAFT: The first sitting Ohio governor convicted of a crime. Bob Taft was found guilty of 4 misdemeanor ethics charges of failing to report 52 golf outings, meals, hockey tickets and other gifts resulting in a $4,000 fine and a law license at risk before a three-member panel and the Ohio Supreme Court.

● Former Taft right-hand man, BRIAN HICKS also joined the misdemeanor parade, paying a $1,000 fine for getting a substantial break on a condo rental from one Tom Noe (more about him later). Hicks problems may not be over as his case is still open.

● Hick’s executive assistant with the cheerful name, Cherie Carroll, also forked over a grand after being convicted on a Noe-related ethics violation.

● DOUG MOORMANN & H. DOUGLAS TALBOTT: A couple more of the governor’s toadies, lighter in the wallet by $4,960 for Noe related mischief. Ever notice how most of the connected folks never spend the first hour in jail.

● Want to be on a college or universities board of trustees? Do what 80% of the current crop have done in Ohio – contribute to republican campaigns. Trustee appointees have greased republican coffers by over $3 million over the years. The governor has glommed on to about a half-million of those board-buying bucks.

● TOM NOE: The Godfather of sleaze. We may never know just how crooked Noe is. Suffice to say he somehow conned the Bureau of Workers Compensation into buying $50 million dollars worth of “rare coins”. Noe promptly used the BWC account for millions in questionable transactions and loans for himself, his business and his buddies while managing to lose at least $13 million of the investment. Then there’s the laundering of money for the George W. Bush campaign through various friends and public officials. Why even the governor received Noe $$$. Surprise, surprise!!!

● As egregious as the Taft and Noe missteps are, the real 800-pound gorilla could be the extraordinarily high-risk offshore hedge fund investment of BWC money by an outfit called MDL Capital Management. The losses from those idiotic investments are estimated to be in the $215 – 228 million dollar range, dwarfing even Noe’s best efforts. A member of the BWC Oversight Commission when that deal was struck was former Cleveland City Council powerhouse, George Forbes. Guess whose daughter works for MDL Capital?

● And while we’re at it, let’s look at a Forbes pal, TERRANCE GASPER, former BWC chief financial officer. Gasper was on the take from investment brokers, dealers and marketers who wanted to do lucrative business with the bureau, including Tom Noe. He pleaded guilty to mail & wire fraud and making false statements June 7th.

● Hey, we’re not done with the BWC and Gasper yet. Proving that age is no barrier to sleaze, 71-year-old MICHAEL LEWIS, a Cleveland area broker, was recently indicted on charges he arranged a really sweet deal for Gasper, effectively buying a Florida condo for $345,000 for Gasper and his girlfriend’s exclusive use. Fellow broker DANIEL O’NEIL helped in the purchase and stands indicted as well. For their largess, the two were given BWC investment business by Gasper. And we may be just scratching the surface. There appears to be a gift giving for favors frenzy in some of the state’s biggest pension funds.

● Because of these and other scandals related to BWC, employers did not receive a rebate last year for the first time since 1995-1996 due to investment losses in the coin fund and offshore hedge fund. Premiums were also raised 4% after a 4.4% increase the year before.

● In light of its horrific track record over the past few years, you just know the bureau is going to step up its investigative oversight. Not really. The budget for the BWC investigative department went up a grand total of $1,300.

● Betcha didn’t know this – the State Insurance Fund has lost almost $1 billion in potential returns over the last decade because of incompetent investment managers. Might be a good idea to look deeper.

● Then there’s always the Ohio Police & Fire Pension Fund board. Two members, THOMAS BENNETT & DAVID HARKER entered guilty pleas for illegally taking thousands of dollars in gifts from vendors. Gifts that included a golfing trip to Scotland and tickets to Ohio State’s national championship football game in 2002.

● HAZEL SIDAWAY/HERB DYER/JACK CHAPMAN: Sidaway and Dyer have already proven their “grab a freebie while serving on the State Teacher’s Retirement System Board” mettle by copping to guilty pleas of improperly accepting gifts (ball games, fancy dinners, Broadway shows – that kind of stuff). Chapman will have to wait his turn, as he’s not been tried as yet. He’s been charged with accepting gifts from 1998 – 2003 from giant financial players eager to invest some of STRS’s $54 billion in assets.

Once elected, it is my intention to restore honesty and integrity to the State House. I’ll start by putting teeth into lobbying legislation that currently contains so many loopholes that it’s all but unenforceable – just the way the lobbyists and the legislators want it.

I’ll also take a close look at the oversight agencies to see that money is detoured from frivolous accounts to the Inspector General’s budget and other venues that are sorely needed to track taxpayer dollars.

Come back and visit from time to time. You know there’ll be plenty more where this came from.

http://www.4shreefer.com/corruption.html