State lawmakers are falling like dominos in the payday loan business.
Payday loans in Columbus Ohio and the rest of the state may have been influenced by State Rep. Dan Mallory, says Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O’Brien.
Investigators have been taking a good look at his activities involving these companies.
Prosecutors are looking into the activities of John Rabenold, a lobbyist for the payday lending companies.
More and more lawmakers are under pressure to quit backing short term high interest companies, and when information turns up of corruption and gift giving in return fro support the gavel is going to be falling and falling hard.
The allegations
Mr. Rabenhold was just sentenced to 3 years of probation and fined $2000.00 for not reporting gifts he had given to lawmakers.
He worked for Axcess Financial, and often lobbied for favorable payday loan laws.
Several of those gifts he was convicted of not reporting allegedly went to Rep.Mallory, including tickets to Bengals games and dinners at area restaurants.
The game in question was against Detroit on Dec. 9th, 2009.
Dinners were also given away.
Paying the price
The FBI has been quite busy going after lawmakers in the past and are still hard at work investigating reports of misconduct by these officials.
Several representatives have started serving prison sentences for taking bribes, grand theft, submitting false financial disclosures, and other illegal activity in association with backing these loan companies.
More are under investigation, and the FBI will hold them all accountable for their actions.
Free dinners, free NFL tickets, and thousands of dollars in campaign backing is in question across the USA and this as far from over by a long shot.
Summary
Mr. Rabenhold had unsuccessfully run for State Rep in 2008, and was backed to the tune of 100 K by the payday loan industry, and with the FBI investigating all of his activity he has decided to plead guilty to receiving the game tickets and dinners.
He is looking at a one year sentence and a $2000.00 fine when he goes in front of the judge for sentencing on May 1st.
As more and more of this kind of behavior comes to light, more and more will be facing jail time for backing these companies.
