United States Attorney
Northern District of Ohio

Gregory A. White
United States Attorney

Benita Y. Pearson
Assistant U.S. Attorney
(216) 622-3600

Antoinette T. Bacon
Assistant U.S. Attorney
(216) 622-3600

Brenda Shoemaker
Assistant U.S. Attorney
(216) 622-3600

United States Attorney Gregory A. White (Northern District of Ohio) and United States Attorney Gregory Lockhart (Southern District of Ohio) announce that Clarke T. Blizzard pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court to one count of conspiring to bribe a public official, Terry Gasper, the former Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation (OBWC). The conspiracy charge had been filed by way of an information as part of an ongoing criminal investigation into allegations of misconduct involving millions of dollars of OBWC investment funds.

Blizzard, age 53, a Florida resident, pleaded guilty to conspiring to bribe Gasper under color of official right, that is giving Gasper things of value in the form of checks totalling approximately $20,000 made payable to Gasper and those close to him, in return for Gasper’s official acts as then CFO of the OBWC. In return for the money, Gasper helped businesses that Blizzard was either associated with, employed by, or represented to obtain and retain hundreds of millions of dollars worth of OBWC’s investment business or otherwise benefit from such investment business. This resulted in the OBWC paying over $2.5 million in fees and commissions to those businesses.

U.S. District Court Judge David D. Dowd, Jr. scheduled sentencing for May 3, 2007 at 10:00 a.m. in Akron, Ohio. Pending sentencing, Blizzard was released on an unsecured $50,000 bond.

The investigation is being conducted by a task force of federal, state and local law enforcement officers from the offices of the Inspector General for the State of Ohio; the Ohio State Highway Patrol; the Ohio Ethics Commission; the OBWC Special Investigations Department; the Ohio Department of Commerce, Division of Securities; and the Cleveland and Cincinnati Divisions of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, as well as prosecutors from the Franklin and Lucas County Prosecutors’ Offices; the Columbus City Prosecutor’s Office; and the Offices of the United States Attorneys for the Northern and Southern Districts of Ohio. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Benita Y. Pearson and Antoinette T. Bacon (NDOH) and Brenda Shoemaker (SDOH).