Posted on 06/04/2005 1:06:00 PM PDT by calcowgirl
SACRAMENTO - President Bush is returning $4,000. The Republican National Committee is donating $2,000 to charity. Top Ohio politicians are giving up $60,000. But Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has "no intention" of giving back $10,000 he received from a prominent Ohio coin dealer under investigation for possibly defrauding his state of millions.
Despite the unfolding controversy, Schwarzenegger's chief fundraiser said Friday the governor plans to keep $10,000 donated by Ohio businessman Tom Noe.
"The allegations about Mr. Noe became public a year after we accepted his contribution," said Schwarzenegger fundraiser Marty Wilson. "As he was an active Ohio Republican Party fundraiser and donor, we had no reason at the time to question his contribution and have no intention of refunding the money."
That decision contrasts sharply with other Republicans who have been moving to distance themselves from Noe.
On Friday, the White House announced that President Bush was returning $4,000 Noe gave his campaign.
"I think that there are some serious allegations that have been raised against this individual," said White House press secretary Scott McClellan.
"They have raised concerns with people in Ohio. They have raised concerns with the White House. And the president felt it was the right thing to return those contributions that came directly from him," McClellan said.
State and federal investigators are looking into Ohio's decision to invest $55 million in Noe's rare coin business. As much as $13 million is now missing.
(Excerpt) Read more at montereyherald.com ...
http://www.columbusdispatch.com/topstory.php?story=dispatch/2005/06/04/20050604-A1-02.html
Probe widens in coin scandal
Key ex-members of Taft staff among investigation targets
Saturday, June 04, 2005
Mark Niquette
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
The Ohio Ethics Commission and other authorities are investigating a dozen or more current or former public officials or employees in connection with coin dealer Thomas W. Noe, The Dispatch has learned.
The number of targets is larger than previously reported in the unfolding scandal involving a controversial state investment with Noe.
David Freel, executive director of the ethics commission, would say only that authorities would investigate any state and local official or employee for potential conflicts of interest; unlawful interests in public contracts; prohibited dealings between state agencies and boards; and ethics-disclosure problems.
The commission is working with the Ohio inspector general and other state and federal partners, Freel said.
The investigation is one of several related to Noe, the Toledo-area coin dealer who was given $50 million by the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation to invest in rare coins.
Attorneys for Noe, a prominent Republican campaign donor, have said there’s an estimated shortfall of up to $13 million.
Various news sources have reported questionable dealings between Noe and former members of Gov. Bob Taft’s staff and others, including:
• Brian K. Hicks, the governor’s former chief of staff, rented Noe’s $1.8 million Florida waterfront home in 2001 and 2002, paying $300 and $500 a week — rates said to be far below the market price. He did not report the matter on his ethics statements.
• H. Douglas Talbott, Taft’s former head of boards and commissions and now a Columbus consultant, accepted a $39,000 no-interest loan from Noe in 2000 so he could buy a $213,000 vacation home in Lakeside, Ohio. The loan was unreported.
• Doug Moorman, a former Taft executive assistant, accepted a $5,000 personal loan from Noe in 2004 after he went to work for the Greater Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce.
Ohio Inspector General Thomas P. Charles also asked Taft’s office last month for telephone and e-mail records as well as the personnel files for Hicks; Talbott; Cherie N. Carroll, Hicks’ executive secretary; and Orest Holubec, Taft’s communications director who formerly ran the boards and commission office, which handles gubernatorial appointments.
Meanwhile, Taft named Tina Kielmeyer yesterday as the interim administrator of the Bureau of Workers’ Compensation. She replaced James Conrad, who resigned effective yesterday in the wake of the scandal.
Kielmeyer, 43, who has worked at the bureau for 23 years, has been serving as assistant administrator and chief operating officer since April 2004.
Keilmeyer said she’s uncertain how long she will serve until a permanent replacement is named but is eager to "help the agency move on from this and get back to business."
Taft also announced the creation of a management review team to help with the transition and evaluate the bureau’s investment portfolio, including internal audit and control systems. The team must report back in 45 days.
The members of the team are Tom Hayes, director of the Ohio Lottery Commission and former director of Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, who will serve as team leader; Laurie Fiori Hacking, executive director of the Ohio Public Employee Retirement System; and James Nichols, treasurer of Ohio State University.
Also yesterday, Democrats called for all contributions from Noe that are being surrendered by GOP candidates or committees to go into an escrow fund at the bureau, instead of to charity.
"These Republicans should donate their own money to charity, not the money rightfully meant for Ohio’s injured workers," state Democratic Party Chairman Dennis L. White said.
The Ohio Republican Party, Taft and most other major GOP officeholders announced this week they would give up their contributions from Noe since 1998, when he received his first $25 million from the bureau.
All five Supreme Court justices who received contributions from Noe also plan to surrender them, said Fred Mills, campaign treasurer for Chief Justice Thomas J. Moyer. The justices received almost $24,000 since 1998, reports show. A plan for where the money goes will be announced Monday, Mills said.
The Bush-Cheney campaign and the Republican National Committee announced Thursday that they will donate $6,000 in "direct contributions" from Noe and his wife during the 2004 presidential election cycle to charity.
However, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is keeping the $10,000 he got last year from Noe for the California Recovery Team.
"Allegations about Mr. Noe became public a year after we accepted his contribution," said Marty Wilson, executive director of the fund, in a statement yesterday. "As he was an active Ohio Republican party fundraiser and donor, we had no reason at the time to question his contribution."
Noe and his wife have given nearly $140,000 in state contributions to Ohio candidates since 1998. More than $75,000 has gone to federal candidates since 1991, according to an analysis for The Dispatch by Dwight L. Morris and Associates.
U.S. Rep. Pat Tiberi, R-Columbus, will try to give the $4,000 he received to the bureau or to charity if that’s not possible, spokesman Bruce Cuthbertson said.
Spokesmen for Rep. Deborah Pryce, R-Upper Arlington, and Rep. Dave Hobson, R-Springfield, both said the $1,000 each official received will be donated to charity.
He needs a lot of money, if he's gonna try to get the Consitution changed so he can run for President.
It would be easier to make Austria an American state.
That probably has more appeal than changing the Constitution.
If Arnie did indeed want to be President of the US, all he would have to do, to grease the skids for a Constitutional change, is CLEAN THE ROTTEN LEFTISTS OUT OF THE CALIFORNIA STATE GOVERNMENT!!!!
That achievement would resound through the halls of Washington. And maybe the Repubs would have a real conservative to work with....just a dream, really, but fun to muse over.
http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050604/NEWS01/506040371/1056
LAWMAKERS RETURNING CONTRIBUTIONS
Republican officeholders returning campaign contributions they received from
Toledo-area coin dealer Tom Noe or his wife, Bernadette:
Legislature:
Senate President Bill Harris: $3,200
Sen. Randy Gardner: $6,950
Sen. Lynn Wachtman: $250
Sen. Kevin Coughlin: $900
Senate Republican Caucus: $10,600
House Speaker Jon Husted: $2,500
Rep. Stephen Buehrer: $7,979
Statewide:
Ohio Republican Party: $10,850
Gov. Bob Taft: $22,190
Auditor Betty Montgomery: $8,100
Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell: $3,000
Attorney General Jim Petro: $6,000
National:
President Bush: $4,000
Republican National Committee: $2,000
U.S. Sen. Mike DeWine: $7,500
U.S. George Voinovich: received at least $3,200, hasn't determined how to return money
U.S. Rep. Patrick Tiberi: $4,000
U.S. Rep. David Hobson: $1,000
U.S. Rep. Paul Gilmore: received $1,500, hasn't determined what to do with money
Other donations:
Calif. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger: received $10,000, is not returning it.
South Dakota Congressional candidate Larry Diedrich: received $2,000, was unaware of donation.
Source: Ohio Republican Party, AP Research
I'd say an impossible dream since Schwarzenegger is, by his actions (increased taxes, borrowing, spending, the size of government and amount of regulations) , a leftist.
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Investigators looking into the state's investment in rare coins said the company that managed the fund bought a coin for $123,000 and later resold it for 1 cent.
State Highway Patrol investigators, in an affadavit, cited the transaction as possible criminal activity and that it constituted a theft of state property.
Patrol investigators searched coin dealer Tom Noe's Toledo-area shop last week and seized LeBron James rookie cards, Beanie Babies, comic books and thousands of other collectibles, according to a search warrant and related affidavits filed Tuesday in Lucas County Common Pleas Court in Toledo.
The documents said the patrol was looking for evidence of theft, tampering with evidence and obstructing justice.
Federal and state prosecutors said Tuesday they will work together to investigate the rare-coin investment and to pursue criminal charges.
The group said it will consult with state agencies involved in the investigation, including the state auditor, attorney general and inspector general, said Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O'Brien.
An attorney for Noe told the state last week that $10 million to $12 million is missing from the $55 million coin fund owned by the Bureau of Workers' Compensation.
Authorities said they weren't sure how much of the non-coin collectibles seized at Noe's store were bought by the state's coin investment.
The search warrant's affidavit, signed by patrol Lt. Howard Hudson, cited a list of transactions as evidence of fraud.
The court documents said Noe's Numismatic Professionals Ltd. sold one coin to a customer for a penny after the company bought the coin for $122,990. Hudson said in the affidavit that the transaction constituted a theft of state property, but the documents did not further describe the sale.
Numismatic Professionals was a company created with state money.
Developments in the coin investment scandal
Thursday, June 02, 2005
(snip)
Palm Beach, Fla., lawyer Harold Gray has spent nearly 40 years trying to recover rare currency from "an absolutely priceless" collection stolen from his client, Willis Harrington du Pont, a member of one of the nation's wealthiest families. He has recovered precious coins from mobsters in Philadelphia and coin dealers in England, Switzerland and Uruguay. Now, he thinks the state's political scandal might connect him to four of the missing coins. One is a $3 gold piece minted in 1855, now worth about $150,000. The second is an 1845 $10 coin worth $100,000. "It's very likely these are the du Pont coins," Gray said.
Amazing. Fiction couldn't produce a better scandal.
And we wonder where all that government money goes or why the pension funds are dry.
ROTF!!! Guess what? Hillary Clinton, indirectly, got some of Noe's money. Noe donated to a PAC called People For Digital Competition, and Hillary got some of that money. Wonder if she's gonna give back the donation? The info, BTW, is available at the FEC's website.
LOL
My pockets are empty but I do have a nice "fleeced' again sheen to my skin.
;-}
LOL. And it gets better! This thing even goes to Malibu, through felon Mark Chrans... $25,000 a month ain't bad money!
http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050422/NEWS24/50422004
April 22, 2005
Ex-coin fund associate has felony record
Man hired by Noe convicted of fraud linked to drug money
CHICAGO — One of the managers hired by Tom Noe to buy and sell rare coins for the state was once convicted of faking a coin transaction to cover up drug money, The Blade has learned.
Mark Chrans pleaded guilty to fraud and perjury in U.S. District Court in Springfield, Ill., in 1986. He spent less than a year in a federal penitentiary.
He is the same rare-coin dealer who caused Mr. Noe’s Ohio-funded Capital Coin to write off $850,000 in bad debt when he failed in the late 1990s to repay loans and salary advances made to him by Mr. Noe with the state’s money, as well as losing more than $300,000 in coin deals that went bad.
According to court documents, Chrans altered business records in 1981 to make it appear that $33,000 in drug money was instead the by-product of a rare-coin transaction.
Federal authorities said Chrans was not implicated in any way in the sale or distribution of the drugs, but he admitted that he knew the $33,000 were drug profits.
Twelve years after he served time in prison, Chrans was brought in as a manager by Mr. Noe to help invest Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation money in rare coins.
Mr. Noe agreed to pay Chrans more than $25,000 a month in state money to manage the coin venture.
We need to purge these criminals from the party.
http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050501/NEWS24/505010425
COLUMBUS - The number of missing rare coins purchased with state money controlled by local Republican fund-raiser Tom Noe now totals 121, documents obtained by The Blade show.
An accounting firm hired to check the inventory of rare coins purchased by Mr. Noe or his associates for the state found last year that not only were the coins missing, but 119 coins were possibly stolen by a Colorado coin dealer, according to a 2004 audit report released last week.
Mr. Noe hired the dealer to run a coin subsidiary funded with money from the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation, the agency charged with paying the medical bills and providing income to workers injured on the job.
The 119 missing coins are in addition to two coins worth $300,000 owned by the state that were lost in the mail in 2003, confirmed Jeremy Jackson, press secretary for the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation.
The state doesn't know what happened to any of the coins, Mr. Jackson said.
(snip)
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