FBI investigating Dann, paper reports

By ALAN JOHNSON

The probe involves Dann’s dealings with gambling interests.

COLUMBUS — The FBI has been asked to investigate Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann, reportedly by a task force that is part of Dann’s office.

Sources who spoke only on the condition of anonymity told The Dispatch that the investigation’s focus is Dann’s dealings with gambling interests, not the ongoing sexual-harassment scandal in his office that has cost four people their jobs and triggered calls by Gov. Ted Strickland and other Democratic leaders for Dann’s resignation or impeachment.

Michael Brooks, an FBI special agent who serves as spokesman, said, “We can neither confirm nor deny any investigation into the attorney general’s office.”

Dann spokesman Ted Hart initially said Monday that he was unaware of an FBI probe. Hart, however, then talked to Dann, who told him that he knew that the Ohio Organized Crime Investigations Commission had initiated a gambling investigation.

Dann, who is chairman of the commission, “recused himself from that investigation from the beginning,” Hart said.

The commission’s six members are appointed by the governor. The group works closely with law-enforcement organizations to investigate specific criminal issues, including violent crime, burglary and, more recently, foreclosure scams.

Jeff Rossi, the panel’s executive director, said he was unaware of a formal request to the FBI for an investigation. But he said one could have been generated by the commission or any member.

Dann, a Democrat elected in 2006, has refused to resign despite calls from top elected officials and essentially being disowned by the Ohio Democratic Party.

State Auditor Mary Taylor, a Republican, said she is expanding her annual audit of the attorney general’s office to take a deeper look into financial operations, including expense reports. The audit is expected to be released in the fall.

The gambling issue surfaced last year amid a heated public debate about whether so-called “skill games’’ should be allowed in Ohio.

As a candidate for attorney general in 2006, Dann had accompanied two leaders in the state’s then-legal gambling industry on fund-raising visits to gambling parlors.

At the time, Republican Attorney General Jim Petro was cracking down on Tic Tac Fruit and similar games, which were allowed under a loophole in the state’s gambling law. Game operators said Dann assured them that he would ease off from Petro’s more-aggressive stance if elected.

Dann raised more than $200,000 from gambling interests, said Jay Young, the former president of Ohio Skill Games and the man who drove Dann on his fund-raising tour. They were accompanied by skill-game distributor Jeff Mayle.

Dann raised a total of $1.3 million to fuel his come-from-behind victory over Republican Betty D. Montgomery, who had signaled a tougher stance against gambling.

Dann never specifically promised to treat the game parlors gently in exchange for contributions, Young and Mayle told The Dispatch on Monday.

“He said, ‘I’m not going to be prejudiced against you. I don’t have a problem with this,’” Young recalled. “He said he’d treat us fairly.”

Mayle added, “He called [game operators] and asked them for money because he was for skill games and wouldn’t do anything to stop them.”

After first attempting to regulate the games as legal last spring, Dann abruptly changed course in June and attempted to drive them out of business. The effort culminated in October with a state law banning the machines. Dann’s office coordinated a raid on businesses and homes owned by Young and Mayle, among others, to amass evidence of a criminal conspiracy.

At about the same time, Dann tapped $33,500 from his campaign fund for an alarm system, cameras and other security enhancements at his home in Liberty, at least partly because of what he said were threats from gambling interests.

ajohnson@dispatch.com

jnash@dispatch.com