COLUMBUS, Ohio (WTVN) -- A group which includes some staff from Innovation Ohio gather outside the Rhodes State Office Tower in downtown Columbus Monday morning to try to put pressure on Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine. They want DeWine to open an investigation into the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow, or ECOT.
"There were crimes committed here. This scandal is four times the size of the Tom Noe ["Coingate"] scandal. Tom Noe, I believe, is spending 25 years in prison. But there's very little talk of criminal repercussions for this," Innovation Ohio's Stephen Dyer said.
Dyer contends ECOT was busy buying designer placeholder apples from Tiffany's while Ohio public schools struggled to keep the lights on. Dyer's group presented an example of such an apple, at their news conference, with the Ohio Statehouse as the backdrop.
ECOT was shuttered recently after a state audit found bloated numbers in their attendance rolls, and other forms of corruption. ECOT's assets were auctioned off a couple of months ago.