Kasich campaign officials said in a statement that “these meetings did not result in business for Lehman Brothers and John earned no commission from this or any other public-sector business.” Kasich never approached any other Ohio governmental entity about doing business with Lehman, the campaign said.
“John’s work at Lehman Brothers wasn’t focused on the public sector, but on helping entrepreneurs and private companies raise capital to expand and grow,” Rob Nichols, a Kasich campaign spokesman, said in the statement. “At the request of a New York-based colleague, he was glad to help arrange two introductory meetings and then his colleagues took things from there.”
In a kickoff speech for his general election campaign on Wednesday, May 12, Strickland raised the issue of Lehman Brothers and Ohio state pension funds.
“Lehman Brothers’ losses were felt across the country, around the world,” Strickland said. “In Ohio alone, our state pension funds lost hundreds of millions of dollars because of Lehman Brothers’ collapse.”
In 2002, Kasich was one of nine Lehman Brothers executives who spoke to the Ohio Police and Fire Pension Fund about the company absorbing the pension’s bond portfolio, which had been managed by another firm, according to the pension fund. Documents don’t detail Kasich’s role in the discussions, but a pension fund spokesman confirmed that Lehman did not get any business as a result.
Kasich’s campaign said his efforts then did not lead to state pension funds investing with Lehman Brothers in later years, which ended in multimillion losses. There is no evidence to contradict Kasich’s assertion.
Dayton Daily News Columbus Bureau reporter William Hershey contributed to this story.
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