Prentiss & Dann Issue Response To Petro's Records of SEC Investigation

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contacts: Beverly Staten/Amanda Conn Wednesday, September 7, 2005 (614) 466-7182/ (614) 466-5899 Prentiss & Dann issue response to Petro’s records of SEC investigation (Columbus)- Today records were released to State Senator Marc Dann (D-Liberty Twp.) from Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro in response to the Senator's recent request for any and all records pertaining to Petro's contention that his office investigated the federal Securities Exchange Commission's allegation that the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation paid illegally excessive broker fees in connection with state investments. The SEC subsequently expressed disappointment at Attorney General Petro's failure to follow-up on the SEC's concerns. In response to his request, Dann received the following documents from Mr. Petro: · The SEC’s letters to BWC and Petro, · Jim Petro's letter to the SEC and · One half-page of handwritten notes “The Attorney General made claims of an investigation and all he has to show for it is a half-page of handwritten notes,” said Sen. Dann. “His notion of defending the public interest is a slap in the face to all Ohioans. Petro leads all Ohio politicians in two categories: fundraising and incompetence. This Attorney General absolutely refuses to go to bat for average people.” During a BWC Commission hearing last month, two letters were inadvertently revealed to the Commission members. One letter was sent in November 2002 from the Securities Exchange Commission to the BWC; another was sent from the SEC to Petro in March 2004. Both cited abuse of excessively inflated brokerage fees at the BWC and warned Petro of the impending problems, but to no avail. During the Commission’s meeting last month, the current interim BWC director stated that the letters were not recently made public because of a criminal investigation surrounding them. On August 25th, Ohio Senate Democratic Leader C.J. Prentiss of Cleveland issued a public statement that asked the following questions in regards to those two letters. She asked: ‘Why didn’t Governor Taft act? Why didn’t Attorney General Petro act? Who are these firms being paid excessive fees and who did they shower with campaign contributions? All the statewide elected leaders?’ “Instead of dealing with his incompetence Attorney General Petro demanded an apology from me. With the handwritten notes that Petro provided today as a public record, we now know at the very least this was sloppy work on his end. So I will reiterate what I have said in the past, that Attorney General Petro needs to apologize to the people of Ohio.” -30-