The former Ohio state deputy tax director who moved over to the Casino Control Commission for several years, only to be dismissed for dereliction of duty, was able to find a home AGAIN on the commission several months later.
The commission is in charge of regulating the Buckeye state’s four casinos.
The hiring of Rick Anthony by the commission as operations manager was announced in 2011 and two years later an investigation by the inspector general found that he had sat on $9 million in business tax refunds, many of them for over a decade. He was put on leave from the commission and shortly thereafter, on July 2014 pled guilty to second degree misdemeanor dereliction of duty.
Seven months later he was rehired as operations manager and then last December he was promoted to deputy executive director, a job that entails running the day to day operations of the commission.
Commission Executive Director Matthew Schuler told the Cleveland Dispatch that Anthony’s past behavior wasn’t considered because his case was sealed. State law forbids employers to ask about sealed convictions.
Schuler added, “Rick, from day one, has been an indispensable part of the commission staff. He’s one of the smartest, hard-working people I know.”
