Noe transferred $3.18M to own firm (from Ohio's Coin funds)

[Robbien]

COLUMBUS — A seemingly endless stream of cash flowed into Tom Noe’s personal business, Vintage Coins and Collectibles, from Ohio’s $50 million rare-coin ventures that the former Toledo-area coin dealer managed, documents show.

During the last 18 months of the failed venture, Mr. Noe authorized at least $3.18 million in checks to Vintage Coins from the coin funds, a Blade review of 15,000 pages of transaction records show.

A spokesman for Attorney General Jim Petro’s office confirmed yesterday that the checks are being examined as part of the investigation into the coin funds.

On Thursday, Mr. Petro charged that Mr. Noe stole nearly $4 million from Ohio beginning on the same day the Toledo-area coin dealer received his first installment of $25 million from the state in 1998.

Yesterday morning, an attorney for Mr. Noe’s wife, Bernadette, said Mrs. Noe — a former chairman of the Lucas County Republican Party — is “surprised and stunned” by the developments, which have “strained” their marriage.

http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050723/NEWS24/50723002/-1/NEWS

[Oversea Visitor]

1. Woah

she got a lawyer fast hey

[livetohike]

2. 15,000 pages of transactions records!

How soon will this go to court?

[Zorra]

3. She was "stunned" because republicans consider stealing money from

others to be nothing but a sound and ethical business practice.

She probably had no idea that stealing money while engaged in business was illegal.

[acmavm]

4. I'm sure she was doubly appalled when she found out that the taxpayers

were actually going to call a bigshot repub fundraiser crook on his criminal activity.

It seems like anymore any republican caught with their hands in the 'cookie jar' are always indignant and offended when first confronted. It's like they feel entitled to pillage and plunder at will.

Oh wait. I guess they think that because the liars and thieves in D.C. get away with it, and Santorum can fleece people, and DeLay is a case study in sticky-fingered greed, they all have the right to just help themselves.

[pfitz59]

5. Puhleeze put these crooks in prison!

Hard time, not country club living! Let them do a stretch "in the yard" with small time hoods who so LOVE rich republicans!

[cmd]

6. Don't forget "Bernie" was also the chairman of elections board

She resigned that position after the election.

Here is another juicy tidbit that I hadn't heard before:

http://www.larouchepub.com/other/2005/3227ohio_rovegate.html

'Poster-Boy for One-Party Rule'

But with his filching of funds, Noe (like those in his network) became arrogant. Exemplifying this are the stunning entries into the May 26 search warrant, involving the case of Mark Chrans, a convicted drug-money launderer, whose $850,000 debt was written off by Noe, using BWC funds.

In the early 1980s, Chrans had sold rare coins specifically to launder $30,000 in drug money, for which operation he received $3,000 as payment from a cocaine dealer. In 1986, Chrans pleaded guilty to fraud and perjury charges, stemming from this case in U.S. District Court in Springfield, Illinois. He served one year in prison.

In the early 1990s, police found in Chrans' car, two plastic bags with mushrooms containing psilocybin, a hallucinogenic drug. In 1992, Chrans pleaded guilty to a felony charge. He was fined, but somehow a deal was swung, so that he got three years' probation.

In 1998, Chrans' life was falling apart: He filed for bankruptcy, claiming to possess only $300 in clothing, a $1,500 car, and a little cash. However, right at this moment, the convicted drug-money launderer Chrans got a contract from Noe to manage a subsidiary of Vintage Coins that Noe had set up, called Visionary Rare Coins, which, according to the affidavit, was for "the express purpose of assisting with the purchase and sale of BWC investments."

Noe started sending Chrans $25,000 a month as advanced payments from State of Ohio money. According to the affidavit, eventually, "Noe and/or his related business entities lent or fronted Mr. Chrans $835,000 to $850,000 of BWC funds."

At one point, Chrans' coin transactions allegedly went bad. He stated he could not pay the money back. Noe simply wrote it off as a bad business debt. Yet, Chrans was an employee of Noe's BWC contract. This was Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation money. An accounting of where the money went has not yet been made.

edit: I just realized this is from LaRouche. He doesn't carry much credibility with me. However, it is a story to watch.

[MasonJar]

7. I went to Cincy for the Kerry campaign on election day. Just my

little precinct ( the one I was monitoring) was as crooked as Mr Wickham. The Republicans are apparently all unabashedly without shame and honor.

[cmd]

8. Report: Coin dealer, wife questioned over gifts to Taft, staffers

Tom and Bernadette Noe were interviewed separately on Friday for about three hours by members of a task force investigating whether officials failed to properly report gifts, The Columbus Dispatch reported Saturday.
(snip)
Prosecutors are hurrying to build an ethics case against Taft's former chief of staff, Brian Hicks, before the two-year deadline for filing charges runs out. Hicks resigned at the end of July 2003.

(snip)
In January 2004, Bernadette Noe went to the Lucas County prosecutor to report that she suspected a consultant was trying to bribe the director of the elections board.

"We looked at that and found no evidence of that," Prosecutor Julia Bates said. "But we found other things, and that's what led to the federal referral."

Bates said her office learned of allegations that Tom Noe gave $2,000 to a number of friends to send under their names to President Bush's campaign, which is illegal. Bates forwarded the accusations to U.S. Attorney Greg White, who is investigating.

http://www.cleveland.com/newsflash/cleveland/index.ssf?/base/news-18/112212057284570.xml&storylist=cleveland

[MeDeMax]

9. wow ! kicking & nominating

:kick: