Raussen is a Cincinnati area Republican who served in the Ohio House from 2003 to 2008. Raussen left the House in July 2008 when then-Gov. Strickland created a new $115,000-a-year job for him in the Ohio Department of Development.
When Strickland and other Democrats lost their 2010 election bids, their political appointees, including Raussen and Ahmad, had to find new jobs.
In 2011, Ahmad became comptroller for the city of Chicago and Raussen was named the managing deputy comptroller. But as he took over as comptroller, Ahmad was already under federal investigation in Ohio. Ahmad was hired by Democrat Richard Cordray and promoted by Democrat Kevin Boyce in the Ohio treasury.
In July 2013, Ahmad abruptly resigned from his Chicago job and a month later was indicted on federal bribery, wire fraud, money laundering, conspiracy and other charges in U.S. District Court in Columbus. He pleaded guilty in December 2013 to his role in running a kickback scheme that involved steering state trading work to a high school classmate who in turn paid $523,000 in bribe money disguised as fees and loans to Ahmad’s co-conspirators.
Raussen was not implicated in that scheme.
In June 2014, Raussen started a Chicago-based consulting firm, according to this LinkedIn page, and was hired as director of the Oregon Educators Benefit Board in December 2013.
The Oregonian reports that Raussen was banned from the OEBB offices but state officials aren’t saying why. And Raussen told the newspaper he is in the dark about why he was put on leave.
The OEBB contracts with insurance companies to provide health care coverage for 150,000 school employees statewide, making it one of the largest insurance customers in Oregon, the paper said.
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CONTINUING COVERAGE
Laura Bischoff in our Columbus Bureau has been following this story for more than two years. Our team will continue to cover it as developments happen.
Here’s a look at some of our past coverage:
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