COLUMBUS, Ohio — Eight Ohio Lottery Commission investigators and their supervisor have been accused of stealing tens of thousands of dollars by forging timesheets while working at JACK Thistledown Racino.
The state inspector general's office alleges the individuals turned in fraudulent sheets for time they never actually worked and pocketed nearly $30,000 in the process. Officials received a complaint directly from the OLC on Aug. 6, 2021, and spent the next year-plus reviewing surveilance video, swipe card reports, call logs, and other information.
The final report concluded the nine men, over a period of more than a month, forwarded OLC lines to their own personal cell phones in order to make it appear as if they were working, among other violations. In particular, the supervisor of Thistledown's Office of Investigations and Security was said to have "failed to exercise appropriate oversight of his staff's responsibilities and their compliance to State of Ohio and OLC rules, procedures, and policies," as well as breaking the rules himself.
"From their evaluation of these records and interviews conducted, investigators found reasonable cause to believe that wrongful acts or omissions had occurred," the report read. "Specifically, the Office of the Ohio Inspector General concluded the OLC staff members assigned to the Thistledown racino had violated OLC timekeeping policies and were paid for reported hours not worked."
The cases have been referred to both the Ohio Auditor of State and the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's Office for potential criminal charges. The OLC has since implemented "several remedial measures" to prevent similar issues, and the inspector general made additional recommendations including:
- Considering evaluating whether it is appropriate for OLC investigation supervisors assigned to the racinos to telework
- Prohibiting OLC staff assigned to the racinos from using personal cell phones to perform OLC duties – including "call forwarding" of OLC phones to personal phones
- Require that all OLC investigators, when on duty and out of the OLC office, forward the OLC office phone to their assigned duty cell phone and carry their duty cell phone with them at all times during their work hours.
