MIAMI TOWNSHIP — He was accused of improperly trying to invest nearly $10-million of public money in gold coins, and a judge just removed him from office.
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News Center 7’s John Bedell went to South Montgomery County today to ask Bob Matthews about losing his job and what’s next in what’s been a months-long legal fight.
Miami Township fiscal officer Matthews has been suspended from his elected job since October.
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The Ohio Attorney General’s Office got a court order sidelining him while it sought to remove him permanently.
A judge gave Attorney General Dave Yost’s office what it wanted with this ruling filed Monday.
Last March, the AG’s office said Matthews tried to invest $9.7 million of the township’s funds in gold coins.
The township’s finance director blocked the transaction after the bank told him about the attempted purchase.
There was a one-day trial earlier this month tied to a civil lawsuit from Yost’s office.
The judge said in a ruling Monday that Matthews violated state law and township policy when he withdrew the money from a township investment account without township trustee approval.
Monday News Center 7 went to Matthew’s house in the township for comment.
“All I want to say is that the Ohio law says that I have the right to, the treasurer has the right, to do investments. And that our legal counsel said that the gold was a legal investment,” Matthews said. “The Fiscal Integrity Act states that they have to show that I violated Ohio law, which they did not show. So, I’m disappointed.”
News Center 7 told Matthews the judge felt differently based on his decision, which also says Matthews cannot hold public office for four years.
“By that time, I’ll be in my 80s. I don’t think I’ll mess with it. My only disappointment is that the township has lost millions of dollars by not doing the investment and spent, I don’t know, thousands more to argue it with me. That’s it,” Matthews said.
The judge wrote at the end of his decision that the ruling can be appealed.
But Matthews said that he has no intentions to appeal.
He said, “I’ve had enough of fighting this.”
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