I haven’t been blogging much lately and didn’t get a chance to comment on this story when published on April 1st by Mark Niquette, a mild-mannered, soft-spoken liberal hack from The Columbus Dispatch:

The investment adviser found guilty of fraud last year in the loss of $216 million at the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation has agreed to pay $5 million to settle a civil case with the state.

Mark D. Lay is not admitting wrongdoing. He is fighting to overturn the guilty verdict in the related federal criminal case but made “a business decision” to stop contesting the state’s civil lawsuit, his attorney said yesterday.

“He has to swallow hard to put this behind him because he needs to move on,” Columbus attorney Percy Squire said.

The agreement calls for Lay and/or his Pittsburgh-based MDL Capital Management and the MDL Active Duration Fund to pay the $5 million to the bureau plus all court costs, although Squire said Lay’s company has been closed.

Lay expects to rebuild MDL Capital Management if the criminal verdicts are reversed and thinks he’ll be able to pay the $5 million to the bureau over time, Squire said.

Unlike the multiple years of stories about Tom Noe and his ties to the GOP, nowhere does Niquette note that Lay is a major DEMOCRAT fundraiser and has contributed extensively to Democrats in Pennsylvania.

And, for those of you keeping score at home, Tom Noe directed state investments from the BWC into gold coins. Gold is actually quite a good investment (especially this year) and all of the money Noe stole was mostly recovered with interest. So while Noe is being careful not to drop the soap in prison, Democrat-connected Lay’s case simply requires him to pay back some commission fees and court costs. How pathetic.

Niquette continues:

Beth Finnerty, deputy chief counsel for Attorney General Marc Dann, said the state agreed to settle the case rather than continue to pursue the entire $216 million based on a combination of factors.

Does anyone believe that hyperpartisan Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann would treat a criminal Republican-connected investment consultant this way?

The MSM is still refusing to mention that the BWC scandal was a true example of what true bipartisanship produces.

Ohio is only one of a three states which doesn’t try to be it’s own insurance company, and instead uses private insurance companies to offer worker’s compensation insurance. There is no reason why Ohio should be in the insurance business, as it clearly encourages inefficiency and serious criminal behavior.