Jury Finds Investment Brokers Not Guilty in BWC Scandal
The Plain Dealer
Ohio brokers in BWC case are not guilty
Akron jury clears both men of bribery, conspiracy charges
Mike Tobin
Plain Dealer Reporter
Akron - Two local investment brokers were cleared Tuesday of charges that they bribed the former chief financial executive of the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation.
A jury needed less than four hours to find Michael Lewis and Daniel O'Neil not guilty of a four-count indictment, including conspiracy, fraud and making false statements.
Lewis, of Willoughby Hills, broke down upon hearing the verdict.
"I was more scared in here than I was in Korea," said Lewis, 72. "We had the truth on our side. The jury saw this for what it was."
O'Neil, of Chester Township, was more blunt.
"The prosecution was out of control," said O'Neil, 55. "God bless the jury. They didn't get sucked in by the government's smoke and mirrors."
The star witness against them was Terry Gasper, the BWC's former top financial executive.
Gasper testified that he steered lucrative investment work to Lewis and O'Neil in exchange for exclusive use of a Florida condo that the two men would eventually hand over to him.
Gasper, 60, pleaded guilty in June to racketeering, money laundering and violating state ethics laws and is likely to be sentenced to six years in prison.
Defense lawyers said during closing arguments that Gasper spun a web of lies to get a shorter jail term.
Lewis' lawyer compared Gasper to a rat trapped in a corner. Gasper told investigators whatever they wanted to hear, Roger Synenberg said.
"He's the puppet and they're the puppeteers," Synenberg said.
Lewis and O'Neil rejected a plea bargain earlier this year and had proclaimed their innocence all along.
They said several people were offered use of the condo for free - except Gasper, Lewis required Gasper to pay rent because regulations forbid state employees from accepting gifts from people with state contracts.
Prosecutors claimed the payments, usually no more than $400, were nominal charges designed to hide the arrangement between Gasper and Lewis and O'Neil.
Gasper never earned more than $123,000 a year, but Lewis and O'Neil made about $6.8 million handling BWC investments between 1995 and 2004. It was in their best interest to buy a $345,000 condo to make Gasper happy, Assistant U.S. Attorney Benita Pearson said.
"He was making these men millionaires," Pearson said. "It was worth their while."
But Lewis and O'Neil said they made high commissions because the investments they brokered earned the BWC at least $2 billion - a fact that U.S. District Judge David Dowd ruled was inadmissible.
The two-week trial is the latest case in the wide-ranging investigation into the questionable handling of the BWC's $19 billion portfolio.
On Tuesday, Tom Noe was sentenced to 18 years n prison for looting a $50 million rare-coin investment that he handled for the BWC.
Ohio Inspector General Tom Charles seemed surprised by the speedy verdict. He said investigators still believe the case was solid.
"It was pretty quick," Charles said. "We felt we had a very, very good case. The jury thought otherwise."
The investigation will continue, Charles said.
"We will reassess, but I don't see anything changing," Charles said. "If we get an indictment, we will move forward."
U.S. Attorney Greg White said he expects additional charges against others in the broad investigation.
"I feel the investigation has already changed for the better the way business is done in Ohio," White said.
It seemed at times during the trial that prosecutors overstated the facts in their case against the two men.
Documents filed by prosecutors showed expensive lunches and dinners that Lewis and O'Neil supposedly bought for Gasper in an effort to bribe him. They even sent him flowers.
But testimony revealed that the $200 lunches were really trays of $8 sub sandwiches that Lewis and O'Neil brought in for the BWC's entire investment staff. The $150 flowers for Gasper were a bouquet sent after he had a life-threatening stroke, O'Neil said.
O'Neil said the case has been a nightmare that has consumed his life for the past several months.
"It was traumatic," O'Neil said. "Thanksgiving is right now for us."
Plain Dealer Columbus Bureau Reporter T.C. Brown contributed to this story.
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