United States Attorney Gregory A. White (Northern District of Ohio) and United States Attorney Gregory Lockhart (Southern District of Ohio) announced that Clarke T. Blizzard was sentenced on May 3, 2007 by United States District Court Judge David D. Dowd in Akron, Ohio, to thirty seven months incarceration followed by two years of supervised release and a $100.00 special assessment. The Court ordered Blizzard to report by noon on June 11, 2007 to a Federal Correctional Facility to be designated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons. This sentence follows Blizzard’s February 28, 2007 guilty plea to one count of conspiracy to bribe Terry Gasper, former Chief Financial Officer of the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation.

United States Attorney Gregory White said this of this sentence, “This prosecution moves us one step closer to breaking the circle of corruption created by opportunists like Blizzard and others, who preyed on public servants who were motivated by personal gain.”

The investigation is being conducted by a task force of federal, state and local law enforcement officers from the offices of the Inspector General for the State of Ohio; the Ohio State Highway Patrol; the Ohio Ethics Commission; the OBWC Special Investigations Department; the Ohio Department of Commerce, Division of Securities; and the Cleveland and Cincinnati Divisions of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, as well as prosecutors from the Franklin and Lucas County Prosecutors’ Offices; the Columbus City Prosecutor’s Office; and the Offices of the United States Attorneys for the Northern and Southern Districts of Ohio. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Benita Y. Pearson and Antoinette T. Bacon (NDOH) and Brenda Shoemaker (SDOH).