Another fantastic "BREAKING NEWS" item from The Toledo Blade.
Now we know why Taft has been exceptionally dodgy since the latest news broke.
COLUMBUS -- Gov. Bob Taft's office was informed in October -- not this week -- of a massive investment loss from the head of Ohio's insurance fund for injured workers.
It is unclear if the news was passed on to the governor.
"In sum, the entire value of MDL's portfolio is down approximately $225 million on a total investment of $350 million," Mr. Conrad wrote in an e-mail to James Samuel, the governor's executive assistant for business and industry.
Mr. Samuel directed Conrad's media relations office for several years before going to work for the governor. Mr. Samuel recognized the e-mail when the governor's office learned of it yesterday but had not remembered it previously, said Mr. Taft's spokesman Mark Rickel.
"I forgot about the lost millions before I remembered about it?"
"While the governor's disappointed that Jim did not share this information with him or his chief of staff [ed: snort], he is also very disappointed that Jim Conrad didn't call him personally to inform him of a loss in excess of $200 million."
In case you forgot, the claim is that the governor only found out about the extent of the loss yesterday, however he has been extremely unavailable for comment since that news story came out.
Now let's look at Taft's previous position (from last night).
A spokeman for Gov. Bob Taft said last night that Mr. Taft had been told in
September that there was an investment loss at the bureau --
a loss of $10 million to $20 million.
Bureau records show that Attorney General Jim Petro's office also was informed of the investment loss in September. Spokesmen said Mr. Taft and Mr. Petro did not learn the full extent of the loss until yesterday.
Okay, so we have a little contradiction here. The fund was described being in free-fall for 4 months before it hit rock bottom (loss $225 million) at the end of September.
The first inkling of problems surfaced in March, 2004, when the fund lost $7 million. Ms. Kielmeyer, in her memo to Governor Taft, said that Mr. McLean was assured that the managers would change their strategy. However, after recovering a bit in
May, 2004, the fund went into free fall.
"...The $225 million investment had no value at the end of September," the memo stated.
So I'm betting that mid-September the losses were certainly much MUCH greater than 20 million.
Timeline:
- March, 2004 - fund lost $7 million
- After May, 2004 - fund goes into "free fall"
- Sept, 2004 - A memo goes out to Taft & Petro. Claim is reported loss was "$10-20 million".
- End of Sept, 2004 - Fund loss hits bottom at $225 million
- Oct, 2004 - Conrad informs McLean that the losses are now $215, McLean supposedly doesn't tell anyone else and promptly forgets about such a trivial thing.
- Yesterday - Toledo Blade digs and finds some more money missing.
- Last night - McLean remembers again! "Oh that $215 million, it must have slipped my mind"
- Today - Rickel says the Gov is "disappointed" Jim didn't share this information with him earlier . He is also "very disappointed" in Conrad not calling him directly about it.
That's quite a series of unfortunate events I must say. All these well-intentioned, but awfully forgetful people that surround Taft, it's amazing he gets anything done!
IMPORTANT QUESTION: Can we know the actual value of the fund through September, because it seems that with that info it's very easy to prove someone is blatently lying here.