State police in Ohio are hunting for $10-to-12 million in missing rare coins that belong to the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation's investment portfolio, an official said.
Jeremy Jackson, speaking for the bureau, said the Ohio State Highway Patrol and inspector general's office were called in after the bureau's oversight commission was briefed Thursday on the total.
The absent coins represent only three tenths of one percent of the agency's $50 million worth of investments, he said. The bureau is the sole provider of workers' comp insurance for Ohio's state monopoly.
Mr. Jackson said the authorities were pursuing both civil and criminal action against Tom Noe, the external investment manager responsible for the coin investments.
The involvement of Mr. Noe, a big Republican contributor, has been pounced on by state Democrats, who have labeled the situation "Coingate."
State Senators Teresa Fedor, D-Toledo and Marc Dann, D-Liberty, on Friday put out a statement announcing: "One of the largest political scandals in Ohio history rocks GOP." They accused Republicans of letting 56 days go by before taking action.
News that coins were missing was first made public by the Toledo Blade newspaper.
The bureau, in addition to stocks and bonds, has been investing in coins since 1998, according to Mr. Jackson, who said on May 13 that the bureau had begun divesting itself of coin investments.
He said that Bill Wilkinson, an attorney for Mr. Noe, had provided the $10-to-12 million figure at a briefing. The bureau, he said, had gone to court to secure an order for a full inventory after Mr. Noe's Capital Coin had not allowed investigators access to one of his five outlets in the state.
Asked if the bureau had any other unusual investments, Mr. Jackson responded: "Not along these lines==that's for sure."
Want to continue reading?
Become a Free PropertyCasualty360 Digital Reader
Your access to unlimited PropertyCasualty360 content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:
- Breaking insurance news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Weekly Insurance Speak podcast featuring exclusive interviews with industry leaders
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical converage of the employee benefits and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, BenefitsPRO and ThinkAdvisor
Already have an account? Sign In Now
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
