About that Vast, Right- Wing Conspiracy in Ohio...
Noe sent funds from state to bankrupt coin associate
By JAMES DREW
and MIKE WILKINSON
BLADE STAFF WRITERS
MALIBU, Calif. - It looked like Mark Chrans had reached a dead end in 1999.
A bank was foreclosing on the house the rare-coin dealer and his wife, Dinah, had bought in an upscale neighborhood in Lexington, Ky., and other creditors were lining up.
Chrans told the federal bankruptcy court he had $300 in clothing, $750 in cash, and a 1988 Mercury Sable worth $1,500.
But he had something else - a benefactor by the name of Tom Noe who was sending him $25,000 a month from the state of Ohio.
And, records show, Mr. Noe had loaned Chrans an additional $250,000 - again money from the state of Ohio.
In his bankruptcy filings, Chrans listed his creditors as the bank that loaned him the money to buy the Lexington house, the IRS, and other state and local tax collectors.
But Chrans didn't list Mr. Noe's Capital Coin Fund Limited, which had hired Chrans to buy and sell rare coins with money from the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation.
In fact, as he filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy protection, Chrans and his wife were starting a new life in southern California.
Mr. Noe, a Toledo-area coin dealer and prominent Republican fund-raiser, helped Chrans make a fresh start.
Within a couple years, the rare-coin dealer, now in California, was $850,000 in debt to Mr. Noe, an amount Mr. Noe wrote off as uncollectible.
"The funny thing is the first nine months, we made really good money," Chrans said in a recent interview. "All we hit was a speed bump, and we had to shut down and it was very, very dumb because by late '99, the coin market took off again. It went hog-wild the last five years straight and if I could have ridden that ride, I would be worth millions," he said.
'Coingate inquiries'
Tom Noe, a friend and financier to Republican office seekers and office holders from Toledo to Columbus to Washington, is at the center of the biggest scandal to hit state government in years.
The Maumee coin dealer and the rare-coin fund he convinced the workers' compensation bureaucrats to invest $50 million in is being investigated by several state agencies.
The state's rare-coin investment was first uncovered by The Blade early last month. The initial story was followed by additional reporting about missing and stolen coins - one was a $3 gold piece the state paid $150,000 for - and Noe campaign contributions to almost every top Republican officeholder in Ohio, including Gov. Bob Taft.
Ohio Democrats quickly dubbed the story-turned-scandal "Coingate" and called for investigations and legislative reforms.
Mr. Noe's problems only worsened when the U.S. Justice Department announced it was investigating him for alleged campaign finance violations. Law enforcement sources said contributions he allegedly made to the Bush re-election campaign through other contributors - a violation of federal law if proven - are at the heart of the federal probe.
FBI investigators interviewed several local GOP politicians about the contributions they had made to the President's campaign.
On May 9, as investigations and revelations in The Blade about additional missing coins mounted, bureau officials announced they had decided to sell off their rare-coin investment and would try to recoup their now $55 million investment from Mr. Noe's coin fund. Instead of paying the state $5 million in profits he claimed he had made on coin sales over the past year, he was allowed to reinvest them in the fund, it was disclosed last week.
State officials said they would hire coin experts and appoint independent auditors to recover the state's investments, as well as attempt to recover the lost and possibly stolen coins. But they did not mention the biggest loss to date in the Noe coin scandal - the $850,000 in state money Mr. Noe wrote off from his dealings with Chrans.
Continues on ... link in headline.
By JAMES DREW
and MIKE WILKINSON
BLADE STAFF WRITERS
MALIBU, Calif. - It looked like Mark Chrans had reached a dead end in 1999.
A bank was foreclosing on the house the rare-coin dealer and his wife, Dinah, had bought in an upscale neighborhood in Lexington, Ky., and other creditors were lining up.
Chrans told the federal bankruptcy court he had $300 in clothing, $750 in cash, and a 1988 Mercury Sable worth $1,500.
But he had something else - a benefactor by the name of Tom Noe who was sending him $25,000 a month from the state of Ohio.
And, records show, Mr. Noe had loaned Chrans an additional $250,000 - again money from the state of Ohio.
In his bankruptcy filings, Chrans listed his creditors as the bank that loaned him the money to buy the Lexington house, the IRS, and other state and local tax collectors.
But Chrans didn't list Mr. Noe's Capital Coin Fund Limited, which had hired Chrans to buy and sell rare coins with money from the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation.
In fact, as he filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy protection, Chrans and his wife were starting a new life in southern California.
Mr. Noe, a Toledo-area coin dealer and prominent Republican fund-raiser, helped Chrans make a fresh start.
Within a couple years, the rare-coin dealer, now in California, was $850,000 in debt to Mr. Noe, an amount Mr. Noe wrote off as uncollectible.
"The funny thing is the first nine months, we made really good money," Chrans said in a recent interview. "All we hit was a speed bump, and we had to shut down and it was very, very dumb because by late '99, the coin market took off again. It went hog-wild the last five years straight and if I could have ridden that ride, I would be worth millions," he said.
'Coingate inquiries'
Tom Noe, a friend and financier to Republican office seekers and office holders from Toledo to Columbus to Washington, is at the center of the biggest scandal to hit state government in years.
The Maumee coin dealer and the rare-coin fund he convinced the workers' compensation bureaucrats to invest $50 million in is being investigated by several state agencies.
The state's rare-coin investment was first uncovered by The Blade early last month. The initial story was followed by additional reporting about missing and stolen coins - one was a $3 gold piece the state paid $150,000 for - and Noe campaign contributions to almost every top Republican officeholder in Ohio, including Gov. Bob Taft.
Ohio Democrats quickly dubbed the story-turned-scandal "Coingate" and called for investigations and legislative reforms.
Mr. Noe's problems only worsened when the U.S. Justice Department announced it was investigating him for alleged campaign finance violations. Law enforcement sources said contributions he allegedly made to the Bush re-election campaign through other contributors - a violation of federal law if proven - are at the heart of the federal probe.
FBI investigators interviewed several local GOP politicians about the contributions they had made to the President's campaign.
On May 9, as investigations and revelations in The Blade about additional missing coins mounted, bureau officials announced they had decided to sell off their rare-coin investment and would try to recoup their now $55 million investment from Mr. Noe's coin fund. Instead of paying the state $5 million in profits he claimed he had made on coin sales over the past year, he was allowed to reinvest them in the fund, it was disclosed last week.
State officials said they would hire coin experts and appoint independent auditors to recover the state's investments, as well as attempt to recover the lost and possibly stolen coins. But they did not mention the biggest loss to date in the Noe coin scandal - the $850,000 in state money Mr. Noe wrote off from his dealings with Chrans.
Continues on ... link in headline.
posted by Christy at 11:44 AM
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