Former Chairman of Ohio Police and Fire Pension Board Fined

August 22, 2005 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - David Harker, former Chairman of the Ohio Police and Fire Pension Board, has pled guilty to charges relating to receiving gifts from vendors.

The Associated Press reports that Harker was fined $500 each for three counts of failure to report gifts of value and one count of receiving improper gifts.   The gifts included a golf trip to Scotland and a trip to Ohio State University’s 2002 national championship football game.

Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O’Brien had said the gifts could “substantially impair the performance of the duties of the pension board member.”

Harker resigned from the pension board in 2003 after the state’s largest police organization called on him and two other trustees to step down. The fund, which serves about 54,000 active and retired police officers and firefighters and their survivors, lost $1.67 billion on investments from 2000-2001, and spent more than $500,000 on travel and expenses over a five-year period.

Harker was also ordered to continue cooperating with the state’s investigation of ethical lapses involving the several other current and former board members and vendors (See  Grand Jury Charges Ohio Pension Official ).

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