The FBI and U.S. Department of Justice subpoenaed nearly 20 years of campaign contribution records for the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow — an indication that the now-closed online charter school and its key players have come under federal criminal investigation.
The USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau obtained the grand jury subpoena in response to a public records request submitted to Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose. The Secretary of State received the subpoena because it is the custodian of campaign finance records.
The subpoena, sent Feb. 4, 2019, seeks all campaign contribution records since 2000 for ECOT, Altair Learning Management, IQ Innovations, WL Innovations, William and Jessica Lager, Richard James Harris, Melissa Vasil and Teresa Berry.
The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio declined to comment when asked about the status of the ECOT investigation.
"Our policy is not to comment on the details or the potential existence of investigations," said Jennifer Thornton, district spokeswoman.
ECOT-related campaign contributions became politically toxic. Lager had been a top contributor for Republican candidates and GOP organizations, giving about $2.1 million since 2000.
In August 2017, the Ohio Republican Party returned $76,000 in campaign donations to Lager and Vasil. That refund came after former Ohio House speaker Larry Householder returned $70,000 to the Summit County Republican Party — the same amount the county party got two weeks earlier from the state GOP. Lager and Vasil each wrote $38,000 checks to the Ohio Republican Party’s state candidate fund June 26, 2017.
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Bill Lager founded ECOT in 2000 and used for-profit companies he created to manage and provide IT services to the charter school.
In 2016, the Ohio Department of Education determined that ECOT had been overstating the number of students it served and the state demanded repayment of $80 million. That triggered a financial death spiral for the school, which abruptly shut its virtual doors in January 2018.
Then-state Auditor Dave Yost issued a blistering report on the operation in May 2018 and referred the audit to county and federal prosecutors for possible investigation.
The subpoena tells LaRose's office to send the records to FBI Special Agent Blane Wetzel, who is assigned to the public corruption squad and is the lead agent on the House Bill 6 case.
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Wetzel authored an 80-page affidavit used by federal prosecutors to outline the racketeering case against Householder, former Ohio GOP chairman Matt Borges, lobbyist Juan Cespedes, political operative Jeff Longstreth and Neil Clark, a long-time lobbyist who died by suicide in March.
Householder and Borges have pleaded not guilty while Cespedes and Longstreth signed guilty pleas in October.
Timeline:Selling out in the Statehouse
In addition to the ECOT and House Bill 6 cases, the FBI said earlier this year that its investigation into former Ohio House speaker Cliff Rosenberger is still open. Three years ago, Rosenberger resigned and federal agents searched his home and storage unit. Subpoenas in that case indicate authorities are looking at who paid for Rosenberger's travel and his involvement in a payday lending industry reform bill that had stalled on his watch. Rosenberger says he did nothing wrong.
No charges have been filed in either the ECOT or Rosenberger cases.
Clark, who pleaded not guilty in the HB6 case, once served as a spokesman for ECOT and as a lobbyist for some payday lending companies.
Laura Bischoff is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Akron Beacon Journal and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio.
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