The Ohio Attorney General has filed an argument in court claiming ECOT鈥檚 agreements with its management and software service companies constitute a pattern of corrupt activity. The claim echoes complaints Democratic lawmakers have lodged for years. 

The lawsuit goes after Altair Learning Management and IQ Innovations, two companies contracted by the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow.

The issue is that ECOT鈥檚 founder, Bill Lager, also controls those two companies, which received nearly $200 million from the state through ECOT.

Attorney General Mike DeWine says in the filing that ECOT can pay off its debts by recovering money from Altair and IQ.

But Democratic Representative Teresa Fedor says this is a pattern of corruption that she and other ECOT critics, mostly Democrats, have been claiming for years.

鈥淎G DeWine is just now is just now taking this step because he knows he鈥檚 let the trail go cold, he鈥檚 running for governor, he鈥檚 running for cover and he doesn鈥檛 want to be held responsible for all of this corruption falling on his lap,鈥� says Fedor.

But DeWine鈥檚 spokesperson, Dan Tierney, argues that they were only recently able to file this claim because they had to wait for other pending litigation to run its course. He adds that it was DeWine who appointed outside council to fight ECOT in collecting claw back money for the Ohio Department of Education.

鈥淲e have to go through these legal hurdles before we can finally achieve action so to critics who say something should鈥檝e been done a long time ago, #1 we have been trying to hold ECOT accountable for some period of time and they鈥檙e throwing road blocks up at every turn,鈥� Tierney says.

But Democrats argue it鈥檚 still too little too late, noting that they still want DeWine to go after Lager on criminal charges.

The state says ECOT owes more than $1.5 million in unemployment compensation and nearly $62 million for students it didn鈥檛 have.

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