Ohio’s Comp Investment Loss Exceeds $300 Million

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COLUMBUS, Ohio-The state’s insurance fund for injured workers announced that a company hired to manage its investments had lost $71 million, bringing the agency’s total known investment losses to more than $300 million.

Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation interim administrator Tina Kielmeyer terminated investment dealings with Allegiant Asset Management, a subsidiary of Cleveland-based National City, after the losses were discovered. The agency blamed $60 million of the losses on management decisions.

Allegiant is the fourth fund manager with which the bureau has severed ties. On June 7, the bureau revealed that Pittsburgh-based MDL Capital Management had lost $215 million of the agency’s investments. The bureau also lost $10 million to $13 million in a fund managed by coin dealer and top Republican Party donor Tom Noe and $4.8 million in funds managed by American Express.

The Allegiant losses were confirmed by Chicago-based Ennis, Knupp & Associates Inc., which the bureau hired on June 30 to examine each of the its investments, bureau spokesman Jeremy Jackson said. The bureau says its insurance fund is worth $14.3 billion.

The Allegiant investments were in major corporations and were taken with a “long-term outlook” but did not perform well from July 2001 to June 2003, when the losses occurred.