Petro: How Noe stole millions from funds (Coingate: It's BAAAAACK!)

[johnfunk]

More details of fun among Ohio Rethuglicans!

Petro: How Noe stole millions from funds
BLADE STAFF

Sept. 28, 2005 / toledoblade.com / Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro presented evidence today of how Tom Noe stole from the state’s $50 million rare coin funds.

According to a filing with the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas, Mr. Noe bilked the two coin funds established by the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation through a variety of methods, including check forgery.

Mr. Petro has already accused Mr. Noe of running a Ponzi scheme and stealing $4 million, claims he backed up today with a series of affadavits that showed:

... you'll just have to read the rest! It's worth it.

And yes, I hear the lovely strains of a frog march in the distance...

[OzarkDem]

1. Pot calling kettle black

Of course Petro doesn't mention how he's complicit in this mess, too.

Yippee! Coingate is back!

[AuntiBush]

4. REPUKS Corruption is like Digging for 1 Needle in A HUGE

Haystack of Corruption! Un-real, huh!

[BR_Parkway]

14. More like looking for one piece of hay in a needlestack.

[rfranklin]

2. If Ohio can't reclaim the funds from Florida, I think life imprisonment is

justified. If convicted criminals can't benefit with book and movie deals, they should not be able to enjoy proceeds of their crimes.

[AuntiBush]

5. Jebbie-Country

Jeb seems so innocent, w/that baby face. More corrupt than brain-dead *!

Told a local Repub awhile back when she mentioned how "innocent" Jeb looked and appears that "they said the same thing about Jeffry Domer."

[AuntiBush]

3. How Convenient for the 1% RETHUGS!

From posted link above: http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050929/DEVELOPINGNEWS/50929031

"• Mr. Noe transferred money between the coin funds to show a false profit to the bureau.

• Mr. Noe used money from the coin funds to purchase a Catawba Island vacation home from his father in-law, retired Lucas County judge Francis “Buddy” Restivo.

• Mr. Noe forged a $110,000 check with the name of a fellow member of the Ohio Board of Regents, Gerry Gordon. He used the check to route bureau money to a bank account he shared with his wife, Bernadette Noe.

The article continues citing the court's findings that Noe had plans to live in Florida (No - I'm shocked, just shocked) so "Ohio" couldn't claim asset's he owes the state.

No comment from Noe (Again, just shocked!) Yet, the best/saddest part is he owes and it appears it came from "$13 million is missing from the coin funds."

Thanks for this very significant story. Kicked.
Nominated w/hopes other's see this.

Is there no end to this horrible REPUBLICAN CULTURE OF CORRUPTION!?!

[samplegirl]

6. Son of B

Compared to 50 million I guess they think 13 million
isnt all that much. I hope Petro can do it.
Repukes never prosecute their own.
Just look at Kenny Lay.

[OzarkDem]

8. Petro is an R

and also received campaign contributions that were laundered by Noe. Peto also sat on the case for two months after it became public knowledge.

He's just trying to save his own hide.

[newscott]

7. This is bullsh*t!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Petro is trying to frame his prosecution that Noe was some kind of lone wolf acting for his own gain.

That's crap.

This was a money laundering scheme for the Republicans just like DeLay worked in Texas.

We need to make sure that federal probe brings that to light.

Don't believe Jim Petro, he's on the wrong side!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[samplegirl]

9. thank you

[hootinholler]

10. Yep! RICO!

Same criminal modus of subordinate organizations, coordinated by the GOP. Actual crimes, interstate, smells like RICO, sounds like RICO, could it be RICO?

-Hoot

[salin]

11. Please note that Noe was about to get another 25 million from BWC

when the Toledo Blade first broke the story in April. And at that time (when the story broke) Gov. Taft made many statements of support for Noe. Also note that Noe's big funding of state repubs became a steady flow just after that first 25 Million "investment" in his coin fund(s).

[norml]

12. Jeb Bush - Shocking 'Coin Gate' Crimes and Murder

Jeb Bush - Shocking 'Coin Gate' Crimes and Murder
Published on 02 July 2005 | Source: TNC Staff Reporter FL

Florida Investigator Who Got Too Close to Florida "Coin Gate" Silenced by Jeb Bush's Gangsters

Story Unfolding

Room 132 at the Knight's Inn in Valdosta, Georgia. Florida Department of Transportation Investigator Ray Lemme had the goods on the Bushes. He paid with his life.



Lemme was anxious to meet his contact, driving a beeline direct route from Tallahassee using I-10, Rt. 221, and US 85, to Exit 16 intersection of I-75 and US 85 (Knights Inn, 2110 West Hill Ave., Valdosta, Georgia). The Knights Inn is fairly remote from I-75, surrounded by empty lots and woods with few potential witnesses in the vicinity.

Wayne Madsen

FLORIDA PANHANDLE, June 10, 2005 -- Experienced federal investigators, acting independently, have discovered a covert funding channel used by the 2000 and 2004 Bush-Cheney campaigns and the administrations of Jeb Bush in Florida and Bob Taft in Ohio to illegally funnel foreign and other questionable money into Republican coffers.

Ever since the brutal death of Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) investigator Ray Lemme in July 2003, the focus of investigators in Florida and Georgia has been on the political scandal Lemme was uncovering. After his official investigation of contract fraud, money laundering, illegal immigration, and election fraud was shut down on orders of Jeb Bush, Lemme continued to investigate the use of FDOT to launder cash for the Bush Brothers and their allies. Lemme's focus was on the use of the Florida turnpike system to launder cash for the Jeb and George W. Bush campaigns. It was an investigation that would ultimately lead to Lemme's body being discovered in a motel room bathtub in Valdosta, Georgia. A two-state police cover up of Lemme's death, threats directed at Florida and Georgia investigators, and a virtual media blackout indicates that the GOP administrations of Jeb Bush and Georgia's Sonny Perdue wanted the Lemme story to go away -- and fast.

The reason for the cover-up of Lemme's reported "suicide" is simple. Investigators have now discovered that foreign cash, including Chinese, Saudi, and Nigerian money, was laundered via the biggest state-run cash cow in Florida -- the Florida Turnpike system. Because most of the transactions involving Florida's toll roads involve cash and huge amounts of it, it was easy for foreign and other questionable money to be laundered via FDOT.


snip


http://www.newcriminologist.co.uk/news.asp?id=1185989364

[farmbo]

13. Petro wouldn't arrest Noe so he moved to Fla...where he'll put Ohio's $$$.

...into his residence, then take bankruptcy. (In Fla a bankrupt's residence, however opulent, is exempt from creditor claims)

The Ohio taxpayers are being raped again...this time by Petro!

[LittleWoman]

15. Don't forget Noe's Bush connection

In addition to handing out money to Ohio Republicans, Noe also was a big Bush contributor (Ranger? not sure which level). Although this has not been talked of recently ,Noe apparently gave money to various friends and relatives to contribute to the Bush campaign in 2004. He is not very bright about this or he is just really brazen because he left a paper trail. The real people investigating this at the state and federal level have asked Petro and the state legislature to butt out so they do not contaminate the case.

[salin]

16. Related : Court urged to take custody of Noe assets

Court urged to take custody of Noe assets

Friday, September 30, 2005
T.C. Brown
Plain Dealer Bureau
Columbus - Tom Noe, the central figure in Ohio's investment scandal, paid $220,000 for a house with state money, forged a $110,000 check and used a Ponzi scheme to inflate some of the state's coin investment profits, according to court documents filed Thursday.

Based on this new evidence, Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro asked a Franklin County judge to take custody of all of Noe's and his wife Bernadette's liquidated assets - about $1.8 million. Petro asked Common Pleas Judge David Cain to also put in a court-controlled bank account an additional $665,000 that is expected to be raised when Noe sells some business assets.

Petro's filing came on the heels of a task force of state and federal investigators looking into potential criminal charges against Noe. The task force has asked Petro and legislative leaders to hold off on their own investigations because it fears its own probe could be partially derailed by Petro's civil suit or any immunity granted to witnesses in legislative hearings.

snip

On April 30, 2002, Noe transferred $150,000 from the coin funds to his business account. That same day he wrote a $110,000 check from the business account to Gerald Gordon, former publisher of the Sun Newspapers. The check was endorsed and the money deposited into the Noes' personal bank account.

more http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/1128072939185000.xml&coll=2

[salin]

17. Blade update - with much more details

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050930/SRRARECOINS/309300003

Noe stole BWC cash for home, Petro says
Check forgery, false profits also alleged

By JAMES DREW and STEVE EDER
BLADE STAFF WRITERS


COLUMBUS — Attorney General Jim Petro yesterday presented evidence alleging that Tom Noe used money from Ohio’s rare-coin venture to buy his former Catawba Island home, landscape his property in the Florida Keys, and show an imaginary profit to the state.

Calling it a “pure misappropriation of public funds,” Mr. Petro charged that Mr. Noe engaged in check forgery, presented false profits, and stole millions from the $50 million Capital Coin I and II funds he managed for the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation.

---snip

According to the court filing, Mr. Noe on April 30, 2002, transferred $150,000 from the coin funds into his personal business, Vintage Coins and Collectibles, and that same day, he wrote a check from his business account to Gerry Gordon for $110,000. The check, endorsed with a signature, was deposited into the personal bank account of the Noes at National City Bank.

Four days earlier, Mr. Noe wrote a check from his personal accounts for $43,773 for landscaping work on the family’s home in the Florida Keys. Before transfer of the $110,000 check, the bank had insufficient funds from the Noes to cover the landscaping charge.

But Mr. Gordon, a former member of the Ohio Board of Regents, signed an affidavit swearing that he never received the check from Mr. Noe and that the signature endorsing the payment was forged.

... much more (longish article )

http://toimages.us.publicus.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?

[Joe Chi Minh]

18. Why is it that so many of those confreres of

that gross and bloated, pudgy, sweaty and shifty-looking character, Bill Bennett, brand economically marginalised and oppressed Americans as criminals, when they simply can't keep their own hands out of the till... or rather bank vaults.

They purport to be upstanding, respectable people, giving a moral lead to the nation they're supposed to serve, and are paid handsomely for the privilege, yet, everywhere you turn, criminality, as shameless as it is serious, abounds.

As St Augustine of Hippo observed so many centuries ago, "when justice leaves a society, what are its leaders but mighty bands of robbers!" Though, come to think of it, it's arguably the other way around, too, i.e. "when mighty bands of robbers govern a society, justice disappears. When the Government itself is bought and paid for, it ends up becoming the ultimate consumer product, the play-thing of the ultra-rich, whereby to pillage the honest citizenry.