How Bush Rigged Ohio Election - The Noe Factor

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By Evelyn Pringle (about the author) Page 3 of 6 page(s)

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The Toledo Blade was the first to run a story on Noe's gig with the state on April 3, 2005.

Within 20 after Blackwell fired the BOE, it started pouring on the happy couple. On April 28, 2005, the Blade reported that Gregory White, US attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, had confirmed that his office, in conjunction with the FBI, was looking into Tom Noe's fundraising activities, as chairman of the Bush-Cheney campaign in northwest Ohio.

"We have publicly confirmed the investigation of Mr. Noe in relation to some campaign contributions," Mr White told the Blade.

Parallel to the Federal probe, the Blade noted, was the investigation of the Lucas County and Franklin County Offices of the Prosecutor into Noe's inability to account for $10-12 million of the BWC's funds.

Less than a month later, on May 26, 2005, state law enforcement officials, acting on behalf of prosecutors, raided Noe's company, Vintage Coins and Collectibles, trying to find out what happened to the $10-12 million missing from the $50 million belonging to BWC.

The distinct possibility has been raised several times, that Noe may have funneled some of the mysteriously-missing money to politicians.

According to the May 31, 2006 Toledo Blade, the Noes have given more than $200,000 to politicians over the last 16 years and their giving increased substantially," the Blade noted, "after the Bureau of Workers' Compensation in 1998 gave him the first of two $25 million payments to invest in his rare-coin funds."

In April 2005, the Blade reported that two of the state's investments, gold coins valued at $300,000, had been lost in the mail. On May 31, 2005, the Ohio Attorney General's office reported that nearly $7 million worth of coins were unaccounted for.

Noe apparently has a bad habit of losing rare coins. According to court documents filed in a previous case involving lost coins, on the evening of November 30, 1996, Noe claimed that $203,588 worth of coins and currency were stolen out of the backseat of his car and tried to collect on the loss with a claim to an insurance company.

About a month and a half before the theft, Noe had purchased an insurance policy from the Homestead Insurance Company, which included coverage for the loss of inventory by way of theft, that had gone into effect on October 17, 1996.

However, Homestead refused to pay the claim, citing two different exclusionary clauses. Noe sued the company and lost, and then he appealed that decision and lost.

On April 27, 2005, the federal probe into Noe's funneling of money to the Bush campaign reached a turning point when FBI agents raided Noe's home, and searched the joint for 3 hours looking for evidence of violations of federal campaign laws.

In the summer of 2005, Tom Noe, was described by the Free Press, as a high-roller crony of Ohio Governor Taft, Ohio Senator George Voinovich and President Bush. But that that ain't all.

It seems as though the Noes had a give-and-take arrangement with just about every Republican politician in the state. On June 5, 2005, Ohio's Republican Attorney General, Jim Petro, acknowledged that Bernadette may have successfully lobbied his office to direct thousands of dollars in contracts to her law firm to collect debt on behalf of the state.

According to the Free Press, Noe had even once donated money to Attorney General Petro's campaign.

The news surrounding the disappearance of state funds intermingled with campaign finance violations involving state officials kept getting worse and worse over the summer. On June 8, 2005, media reports said that the BWC had concealed over $215 million in losses and that Governor Taft had been aware of the situation for months.

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Evelyn Pringle is a columnist for OpEd News and investigative journalist focused on exposing corruption in government and corporate America.

The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author
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