Payday lending letters draw attention from federal investigators

COLUMBUS — Last spring, state Rep. Niraj Antani, R-Miamisburg, worked behind the scenes with a lending-industry lobbyist and its trade group to write a letter aimed at weakening a sweeping payday lending reform bill that was signed into law this fall.

Federal investigators have subpoenaed records from the Ohio House of Representatives in an investigation into how that letter came together, according to documents obtained by the Dayton Daily News through a public records request.

The U.S. Department of Justice issued a subpoena to the Ohio House for public records, text messages and other correspondence related to the letter, according to the documents.

The subpoena was issued Aug. 27 and asked that the records be delivered to the federal grand jury by Sept. 12. The House turned over more than 520 pages. The existence of the subpoena has not been publicly disclosed before.

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