toledoblade.com --

COLUMBUS - The Blade yesterday asked the Ohio Supreme Court to order the state Bureau of Workers' Compensation to release uncensored records related to the bureau's $50 million investment in rare coins with Maumee coin dealer Tom Noe.

The suit charges that the bureau violated Ohio's Open Records Act by delaying release of documents requested by The Blade and only partially releasing others with information regarding specific coin transactions blacked out.

"It is impossible to know whether the Bureau investments have been prudent, or indeed whether they have even been lawful, without knowing what the investments are," stated the lawsuit, filed by The Blade's attorney, Fritz Byers. "It is impossible to know whether the activities of the funds in handling public property have been infected with self-dealing, or have been driven by inappropriate political considerations, or have produced unaccounted-for profits, without first knowing the facts of the special transactions involving public property and public funds.

"It is impossible to know whether and to what extent the Bureau has been the victim of thefts of public property, or whether the Bureau's apparent returns on its investments are genuine or merely the product of a shell game, without knowing the identity and disposition of the property purportedly purchased on the Bureau's behalf," the suit states.

Court spokesman Chris Davey said the state has 10 days to respond to the action before the court determines how to proceed. The bureau has maintained that an inventory of coin holdings are exempt from the public records act as a "trade secret."

"Both the bureau and the attorney general have said that, by releasing inventory, we put the overall profitability of the investment at risk," said bureau spokesman Jeremy Jackson. "The profit derived would be controlled by supply and demand. By making known the holdings of the Capital Coin Fund, we give away that leverage and put the potential profitability in peril."

The state announced earlier this week that it plans to divest itself of its $50 million coin investment with Mr. Noe.

The suit filed yesterday names the bureau, bureau administrator James Conrad, and the two Capital Coin Funds, which are based in Maumee. It does not name Mr. Noe as defendant, nor is he mentioned in the complaint.

Sen. Marc Dann, a suburban Youngstown Democrat who also had received records with censored information from the bureau, had threatened to file his own lawsuit.

"If being involved in an investment requires secrecy and fraud in order to be successful, that's not the kind of investment the state ought to be in," Senator Dann said.

"We ought to be able to track it. We ought to operate in open markets. We're not speculators. We have a special duty to injured workers and employers to make sure we do this responsibly."

The Blade has reported that as many as 121 state-owned coins are missing or stolen and that one of Mr. Noe's coin-fund managers, who caused the loss of $650,000 in state funds, has a felony record.

The Ohio inspector general is investigating the coin deal, and the FBI has confirmed an unrelated investigation into possible violations of campaign finance law in connection with a re-election fund-raiser for President Bush in late 2003.

Contact Jim Provance at:
jprovance@theblade.com
or 614-221-0496.

Permanent Link