Ex-Taft aide got $39,000 from Noe; 'loan' used to help buy house

[Robbien]

COLUMBUS — A former high-ranking aide to Gov. Bob Taft accepted $39,000 from Tom Noe so he could buy a house in Lakeside, Ohio.

H. Douglas Talbott, who worked for Mr. Taft and former Republican Gov. George Voinovich, said he accepted the money as a “loan” from Mr. Noe in September, 2002 — after leaving the governor’s office in May, 2000, to become a lobbyist.

Mr. Talbott, 41, said he has not repaid the money to Mr. Noe, but he plans to do so with interest. “I approached him about repaying it three times and he said, ‘I want to wait until you are a bit more established,’” Mr. Talbott told The Blade. Mr. Talbott did not list the $39,000 loan from Mr. Noe as a gift in his ethics form covering 2003.

. . .

Mr. Talbott said when he noticed a house on the market in 2002, he contacted Fifth Third Bank, which said he needed another year under his belt as a lobbyist before he could get a loan. “So I thought maybe Tom would know somebody,” said Mr. Talbott, who added that Mr. Noe suggested calling a second bank, National City Bank. When that bank also wouldn’t make a loan, Mr. Talbott said Mr. Noe told him: “What if I just write the check for the downpayment as a loan?”

http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050602/NEWS24/50602001/-1/NEWS

[elehhhhna]

1. Interesting real estate strategery.

[montanacowboy]

2. And where pray tell, did this idiot

explain the source of the downpayment? Any lender needs to know where that down payment is coming from and they freakin want a paper trail.

I am interested how he played this one? he either forged some sort of paper trail or the lender was in cahoots with him, either way, someone is liable here...

[Robbien]

4. According to the article

Noe paid the downpayment for Talbott. The real estate agent remembers receiving a check from the coin shop. The exact same coin shop set up initially for the sole purpose of handling Ohio's investment.

[AlCzervik]

5. Well that should have set off alarm bells at the mortgage company

they want to know where your downpayment came from usually through bank records. This thing is getting stinkier everyday.

[montanacowboy]

6. Not only that

but some and maybe all RE loans have restrictions on WHERE THE MONEY CAN COME FROM.....I.E., PARENTS, FAMILY MEMBERS

this stinks to high heaven...someone is really cooking some books here, this is totally not legal

[AlCzervik]

8. yup, i deal with stuff all the time at my job

and this whole sounds fishy, smelly enough to start investigatin the real estate company and the mortgage company that gives them kick backs for sending clients their way.

[patcox2]

18. Generally, down payment money cannot be borrowed.

So its highly likely he committed fraud against the mortgage lender by misrepresenting the source of this money.

[WeRQ4U]

3. This stuff NEVER happens to me....

[patdem]

9. Me either..but I was lucky enough to have a mother who had money

and she gave my son 'my inheritance' to purchase his dream home (he and his wife and my three grandchildren) and my mother thought I should reclaim 'my inheritance' when he sells his home..and I said..no way...why? So he can wait for me to die and get it all back? I say..I am so happy my mother gave him the money and it is MY money which is now HIS money...and they are happy. What, I want cash as opposed to my son's and his families happiness? I think not!

[Justitia]

7. well, well, well - lookie there...dirty, dirty, dirty

Y'all have to read the article.
The corruption is blatant and glaring!
This Noe crook had quite a little bribery brokerage goin' on.
He must be related to Jack Ambramoff.....

[Robbien]

10. Since there is $10-12 million missing from Ohio's fund

there are probably plenty of these kick-back and money laundering schemes throughout Ohio's GOP.

[Algorem]

11. "Idiot-Proof :The governor must be stopped before he invests again"

Published: Wednesday, June 1, 2005

http://www.clevescene.com/Issues/2005-06-01/news/firstpunch.html

After weeks of defending the state's investment in rare coins -- without bothering to check if his boast of huge returns was actually true -- Governor Bob Taft has finally learned that it isn't a good idea to sink $55.4 million into . . . collectibles.

"I can go to any barroom or bowling alley in the state of Ohio . . . and everybody understands what I'm talking about, 'cause rare coins are the things you see on TV late at night," says state Senator Marc Dann (D-Liberty) of the bizarre investment scheme.

Dann made his comments last week after it was revealed that $12 million is missing from a collectible-coin fund managed by Tom Noe, a top Republican sugar daddy. The fact that it took so long for Taft to come to Jesus suggests that he's either corrupt and covering up for his buddy, or that the biggest moron in Ohio is holding the purse strings. "He's somebody who I wouldn't trust to handle my son's bar mitzvah money," Dann says.

Taft isn't the only one who looked the other way. Attorney General Betty Montgomery and Auditor Jim Petro have long known about the problem, Dann notes, but failed to act. "I think Petro, Montgomery, and Taft are accomplices after the fact to this. They've helped him avoid prosecution," Dann says of Noe. "The watchdogs turned out to be lapdogs -- or even worse, guard dogs for Noe."...

[Algorem]

12. Cleveland letter to editor-"Coingate may be a godsend for Ohio's poor "

Thursday, June 02, 2005

On the same day that a new poll revealed the extent of Ohio's soaring poverty rate, it came to light that Tom Noe, major featherer of GOP beds, can't account for up to $12 million of taxpayers' money.

While researchers debate the accuracy of the poverty numbers, one indisputable fact is that the misplaced values and failed leadership in Ohio have resulted in more poor people.

In the book "God's Politics," Jim Wallis wrote that, on Judgment Day, the Lord will challenge His followers with these words, "As you have done to the least of these, you have done to me," referring to the poor and downtrodden. Wallis went on to write about politicians who lack moral conviction, licking their fingers and holding them up to the wind. He wrote, "You don't change a society by merely replacing one wet-fingered politician with another. You change a society by changing the wind.

While Bob Taft, Ken Blackwell, Jim Petro and Betty Montgomery have played musical chairs with state office seats, we the people have consistently been the ones left standing when the music stops. If Coingate brings an end to this culture of corruption, this era of arrogance and the politicians who have fostered it, it will truly be a penny from heaven. It will change the wind. Then we can get to work for "the least of these" and make the most of Ohio's future.

http://www.cleveland.com/letters/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/opinion/1117704796289180.xml&coll=2

[Algorem]

13. Noe persuaded him to contribute $2,000 to Bush then reimbursed him

Governors' ex-aide linked to campaign probe

Friday, June 03, 2005

H. Douglas Talbott, a former top aide to two Ohio governors, told federal authorities that Republican coin dealer Tom Noe persuaded him to contribute $2,000 to President Bush's re-election campaign - then reimbursed him for the donation, The Plain Dealer has learned.

Talbott appeared Wednesday before a federal grand jury in Toledo that is investigating whether Noe illegally reimbursed as many as two dozen contributors to a Bush fund-raiser in October 2003. The grand jury is looking into whether Noe made the reimbursements to circumvent campaign finance laws, which limit individual contributions to $2,000.

Repeated attempts to reach Talbott were unsuccessful.

His appearance before the grand jury marked the first time a former top aide to Gov. Bob Taft and former Gov. George Voinovich has been linked to the federal investigation of possible laundering of Bush campaign money...

http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/1117791231263120.xml&coll=2

[elehhhhna]

14. I want a Noe interest Noe principle loan, too!

[bleedingheart]

15. My husband was offered a $100K loan by a company to buy a home

it was one of those "nudge nudge, wink wink " deals...where the loan would be on the company's books and then after so many years of service and no payments from us...they would write it off... It scared the crap out of both of us and we declined.

[jasmeel]

16. Any viable link from coingate to * admin? Could anyone from the

* admin be prosecuted???

[Penndems]

17. Love this paragraph:

"His appearance before the grand jury marked the first time a former top aide to Gov. Bob Taft and former Gov. George Voinovich has been linked to the federal investigation of possible laundering of Bush campaign money..."

Shades of Watergate. How ironic that Mark Felt "came out" at this particular time. This scandal is getting ready to blow wide open and "go national".

Just watch.








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