Thomas Noe, Lucas Co., Ohio mugshot, February 13, 2006

Coingate is a nickname for the Thomas Noe investment scandal in Ohio revealed in early 2005 in part by Ohio newspaper Toledo Blade. The Ohio government's Bureau of Workers' Compensation fund (BWC) invested hundreds of millions of dollars in high risk or unconventional investment vehicles run by people closely connected to the Ohio Republican party who had made large campaign contributions to many senior Republican party officials. An expert is someone widely recognized as a reliable source of knowledge, technique, or skill whose judgment is accorded authority and status by the public or their peers. ... Image File history File links Thomas_W_Noe. ... February 13 is the 44th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... A nickname is a short, clever, cute, derogatory, or otherwise substitute name for a person or things real name (for example, Tom is short for Thomas). ... Thomas W. Noe, (B.1955), is a longtime resident of Toleda, Ohio[1] is currently† a member of the Ohio government in the United States and has had an impressive array of jobs and positions within the government of Ohio and even the federal government. ... Official language(s) None Capital Columbus Largest city Columbus (largest metropolitan area is Cleveland) Area  - Total  - Width  - Length  - % water  - Latitude  - Longitude Ranked 34th 116,096 km² 355 km 355 km 8. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Toledo Blade is a daily newspaper in Toledo, Ohio, first published on December 19, 1835. ... Governmental authority in the U.S. state of Ohio, like that at the federal level, is divided among three nominally co-equal branches--executive, legislative, and judicial. ... Workers compensation systems (workers comp or compo) exist to protect employees who have incurred work-related injuries. ...

A rare coin investment fund has attracted particular scrutiny after it was reported that two coins worth more than $300,000 had been lost. Further investigation then revealed that coins worth $10-$12 million were missing and that only $13 million of the original $50 million invested could be accounted for.

Background

In 1996, the Republican-controlled Ohio General Assembly passed a law that struck the requirement that the Ohio state government invest solely in bonds. Fund managers and other brokers then scrambled to offer their services. They also donated large amounts of money to politicians: finance records indicated almost a four-fold increase in donations following the legal change. The Ohio General Assembly is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Ohio. ... Bonds can refer to: A financial bond (including a junk bond or a zero-coupon bond) Barry Bonds A chemical bond (including the ionic bond, covalent bond, coordinate covalent bond, metallic bond, hydrogen bond, Carbon-carbon bond, Disulfide bond and Glycosidic bond) This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid...

The Coingate scandal centers on Thomas Noe, an Ohio government figure, GOP fundraiser, and coin dealer. In a separate fundraising scandal, Noe was indicted by a federal grand jury in late October of 2005, charged with money laundering and for suspected violation of campaign contribution laws. Thomas W. Noe, (B.1955), is a longtime resident of Toleda, Ohio[1] is currently† a member of the Ohio government in the United States and has had an impressive array of jobs and positions within the government of Ohio and even the federal government. ... The Republican Party was established in 1854 by a coalition of former Whigs, Northern Democrats, and Free-Soilers who opposed the expansion of slavery and held a Hamiltonian vision for modernizing the United States. ...

Coins

In March of 1998, Thomas Noe Inc. was awarded a $50 million investment contract for the Ohio Workers' Compensation fund. The company received $25 million to invest in 1998, and the same again in 2001. Before this, Mr. Noe and his then managers had increased their contributions to Republican candidates by nearly 10 times. By April, according to the February 2006 indictment, Noe had already begun his illegal activities, stealing money from the investment. "His illegal actions continued until it was shut down this past May, the indictment said." [1]. To manage the investment, Thomas Noe Inc. used a newly created subsidiary of Noe's company Vintage Coins & Collectibles, called Capital Coin (in fact, Capital Coins Ltd. I and Capital Coins Ltd. II). Capital Coin then created subsidiaries Visionary Rare Coins, Numismatic Professionals, Rare Coin Alliance, and one named Karl D. Hirtzinger.

In 1998, Noe hired Mark Chrans to manage Visionary Rare Coins. Chrans had previously been convicted for fraud and perjury involving money-laundering in coin deals. Noe says he wasn't aware of Chrans' previous convictions. Spokesman Jeremy Jackson of the bureau said the bureau was also unaware of the convictions. In the end, Capital Coin wrote off $850,000 in losses from Visionary Rare Coins, including bad investments, unpaid loans, and advances on coin deals.

Michael Storeim, in Evergreen, Colorado, was hired to manage Numismatic Professionals. He knew Chrans and had even written a letter to the federal court urging leniency in sentencing. Evergreen is a census-designated place located in Jefferson County, Colorado. ...

In 2003, Numismatic Professionals bought two coins for $185,000, an 1855 $3 gold coin and an 1845 $10 gold coin, thought to be worth $300,000 at market value. After sending the coins to be certified, they were allegedly lost on the way back. Storeim notified police, but they could not determine how the coins were lost and closed the case. This article is on the monetary principle. ...

Unrelated to these missing coins, Noe, in 2004, hired forensic accountants Plante & Moran, PLLC to examine the company's records based on "internal auditing controls." An additional 119 coins purchased at a cost of $93,000 were found to be missing and Noe informed the state that an employee of Numismatic Professionals was misappropriating assets. Likely related, in 2004 Storeim was both fired and barred from the Professional Numismatists Guild (of which Noe was a "statuatory agent") for ethics violations. Noe withheld $900,000 worth of bonuses to Storeim and confiscated $400,000 worth of coins. Storeim said he would sue Noe for confiscating the coins; it is currently unknown whether he did or will. The 10th largest certified public accounting and management consulting firm according to Public Accounting Report. ...

Capital Coin also loaned dealer Delaware Valley Rare Coins in Broomall, Pennsylvania, which is not owned or controlled by Noe, $300,000 from the fund, which the dealer then used for his own business. The dealer used property in New Jersey as collateral. The Ohio newspaper The Toledo Blade made a public records request to the government to view the mortgage documents. Capital Coin had redacted the records, blacking out the address of the property and the owners. The Ohio attorney general ordered Noe to release the documents, noting "anyone pledging property as collateral to back publicly funded investments must make their name and address public." Lawyers for Capital Coin refused. The case was eventually settled. Broomall is a census-designated place located in Delaware County, Pennsylvania. ...

Only $13 million of the original $50 million invested has been recovered to date.

In March of 2006, a sealed-bid auction process was initiated to liquidate all high-risk coin and paper money assets; the coins for sale are viewable online.

Investigation

Attention first focused on the matter after the April 3, 2005 publication of a story by the Toledo Blade [2]. April 3 is the 93rd day of the year (94th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 272 days remaining. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

On May 24, 2005, Thomas Noe Inc. was sued by the state of Ohio on behalf of the BWC. The judge granted The Ohio Attorney General's request to immediately freeze the assets and The BWC was given complete control of the coin funds.

Ohio state investigators immediately began to check inventory of the various companies, reviewing records and documents at Numismatic Professionals and another subsidiary in Sarasota, Florida^[3]. However, investigators were denied access to one of Capital Coin's subsidiaries in Monclova Township^[4] and to Delaware Valley Rare Coins. Noe said access was denied to the Ohio location because his lawyers were busy in Colorado and Florida and he said he was initially told the Ohio company was to be searched later. Noe said he neither owns nor controls Delaware Valley Rare Coins, reasoning that this is the reason investigators were denied access^[5]. Cà dZan Sarasota is a city located in Florida, USA. It is on the west coast of Florida in the central portion of the state. ...

The Ohio inspector general became involved and asked to see the coins. $10-12 million worth of coins were apparently unaccounted for.

On July 13, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled 5-2 that the coin-fund records were public record and should be released, rejecting the state's argument that the information was "trade secrets" and exempt from the Ohio Public Records Act. The case was heard by five Ohio appellate court justices, as five of the Supreme Court justices recused themselves having accepted campaign donations from Noe. However, after two weeks, Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro had released only 3 of the 120 boxes of documents. The Toledo Blade, on July 28, filed a motion to find the state in contempt. The Ohio Supreme Court is the highest court in the U.S. state of Ohio, with final authority over interpretations of Ohio law and the Ohio Constitution. ... James M. Jim Petro is an American politician from the state of Ohio and a member of the Republican Party. ...

Among the individuals subpoenaed for the investigation was Lucas County Commissioner Maggie Thurber.

On August 17, 2005, Governor Bob Taft was charged with four criminal misdemeanors stemming from his failure to disclose golf outings paid for by lobbyists, as well as some undisclosed gifts. The gifts were varied, but included gifts from Noe. It was the first time an Ohio governor was ever been charged with a crime while in office.[6] August 17 is the 229th day of the year (230th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Robert Alphonso Taft II (born January 8, 1942) has been the Republican governor of the U.S. state of Ohio since 1999. ... Misdemeanors are lesser criminal acts which are generally punished less severely than felonies; but more so than infractions. ... Golf (gowf in Scots) is a game where individual players or teams hit a ball into a hole using various clubs, and is one of the few ball games that does not use a fixed standard playing area. ... Lobbying is the practice of private advocacy with the goal of influencing a governing body, in order to ensure that an individuals or organizations point of view is represented in the government. ...

Taft's former chief of staff, Columbus lobbyist Brian Hicks, and his assistant, Cherie Carroll, also were convicted of ethics violations in the widening Coingate scandal. Hicks was convicted of failing to disclose cut-rate vacations at Thomas Noe's residence in the Florida Keys, and Carroll for accepting free meals from Noe at a downtown Columbus steakhouse. Thomas W. Noe, (B.1955), is a longtime resident of Toleda, Ohio[1] is currently† a member of the Ohio government in the United States and has had an impressive array of jobs and positions within the government of Ohio and even the federal government. ...

On February 13, 2006, Noe was indicted [7] on 53 counts[8], including: engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity (which carries a mandatory 10 year sentence), 11 counts of theft, 11 counts of money laundering, 8 counts of tampering with records, and 22 counts of forgery. Business parter Timothy LaPointe was also indicted for engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity and 6 counts of tampering with records [9]. February 13 is the 44th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2006 (MMVI) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

According to the indictments, among other acts, Noe and LaPointe borrowed coins from other businesses and individuals and fraudulently listed those as belonging to the state during annual audits in 2002, 2003 and 2004.

Notes

1. ↑  From information available, it is unclear which subsidiary is located where.
2. ↑  From information available, it is unclear why investigators were necessarily denied access to this company.

Video game

A video game has been created that pokes fun at the entire affair. The game resides on the personal website of one Jason Griffith, who is running for State Senate in Ohio. See "External Links" for a link to the download location of this game. The Ohio Senate is the upper house in Ohios bicameral legislature, the Ohio General Assembly; the lower house is the Ohio House of Representatives. ...

External links

• Noe got early start in rare coin business by Mike Wilkinson, Toledo Blade, April 3, 2005.
• Special Report: Ohio Coin Funds, CoinLink
• Coingate:The GOP's Culture of Corruption
• "Coins of the Realm", Alternet, 29 June 2005
• "What's the Matter With Ohio?", by Paul Krugman, New York Times, 17 June 2005
• "Coingate, the video game"
• Grand Jury Charge Noe with 53 Felony Counts by Mike Wilkinson and James Drew, Toledo Blade, February 13, 2006
• Chronology of Noe's Involvement (in Coingate), Toledo Blade, February 13, 2006
• Text of Noe's 53-count Indictment, February 13, 2006