The E-Sylum:  Volume 8, Number 22, May 29, 2005, Article 11

STILL MORE ON OHIO'S "COINGATE"

The Toledo Blade seems relentless in its coverage of Ohio's
rare coin investment, publishing an article May 23 highlighting
the key dealer's absence from a coin show:

"Tom Noe was a no-show at a large coin show in Columbus
this weekend, but that did not squash the buzz surrounding the
state's controversial $50 million rare-coin venture with the
Maumee coin dealer.

Mr. Noe was scheduled to give a speech about the state
quarter program on Saturday morning, but organizers of the
Ohio State Numismatic Association Coin Show said he
canceled a few days ago.

The three-day show at the Franklin County Veterans Memorial,
which ended yesterday, included more than 100 dealers
from Ohio and as far away as Texas, California, and Illinois.

The Blade first reported April 3 that Mr. Noe - the central
figure in the scandal dubbed "Coingate" by Ohio Democrats -
had received two installments of $25 million since 1998
from the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation to invest
in rare coins for the state."

[I hadn't picked up on the "Coingate" term before, an allusion
to President Nixon's "Watergate" scandal of the 1970s. It
will be interesting to see in the end just how well the coin
fund fared compared to the state's other investments in the
same period. -Editor]

To read the article, see: Full Story

On Friday, May 27 the paper reported that "Federal and state
authorities are pursuing criminal and civil charges against Tom
Noe for allegedly misappropriating $10 million to $12 million
from the state’s rare-coin investment."

"Asked where the state’s money went, Mr. O’Brien replied:
“I don’t know the answers to that question. The search warrant
might partly answer that.”

He referred to the search warrant executed yesterday afternoon
at Mr. Noe’s Vintage Coins & Collectibles, his Monclova
Township headquarters.

As many as 10 fraud investigators pored over evidence at
Mr. Noe’s office as Ohio Highway Patrol troopers stood
guard outside.

A technician photographed all the evidence inside the
headquarters before it was brought outside and put into a
state van backed up to the office warehouse. Late into the
night, state inspectors loaded numerous boxes and at least
eight desktop computers and a laptop into the van.

Inspectors confiscated more than coins in their sweep
yesterday. One investigator said they found that Mr. Noe
had purchased other collectibles with the state’s money,
including a Christmas card signed by former First Lady
Jacqueline Onassis and a document signed by Thomas
Jefferson."

To read the complete article, see: Full Story

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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