GOP fundraiser convicted in scandal gets 18 years in prison (Tom Noe)

[sabra]

http://www.cnn.com/POLITICS/blogs/politicalticker/2006/11/gop-fundraiser-convicted-in-scandal.html

GOP fundraiser convicted in scandal gets 18 years in prison

TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) -- Former Republican fund-raiser Tom Noe has been sentenced to more than 18 years in prison for embezzling from a state investment in rare coins.

The coin dealer was convicted last week of theft, corrupt activity and other charges for which he could have gotten up to 70 years in prison.

[Deep13]

1. Commenting on the sentence, Nelson from the Simpsons said:

HA-ha!

[gratuitous]

2. Dang, 18 years for being innocent

At least, that's what Noe's been saying all along. How, oh how, could this happen to a Republican in Ohio???

[Deep13]

6. "How ... could this happen to a Republican in Ohio???"

Was too arrogant to hide what he stole.

[grizmaster]

3. Wow, now THAT is a sentence

remind not to do what he did

[napi21]

4. GOOD! Couldn't happen to a more deserving guy! n/t

[NoBushSpokenHere]

5. I had previously posted this in GD K&R this one - its better than mine :)

Headline is better k&r please!

[warrens]

7. I bet a lot of Repukes just broke out in a cold sweat

You KNOW there are more out there who haven't been caught yet.

[seafan]

8. So, will Tom and Bernadette keep their lavish home in the Florida Keys?

....the one that they just spent lots of (someone's) money *redecorating*?
Eighteen years in the slammer is a long time.



Well, now, I just found the answer to my question:

As part of the jury's verdict Monday, jurors ordered Noe to turn over to the state his shares of a Florida coin business, which has a value of at least $1 million and may be worth up to $5 million.

But prosecutors didn't go after Noe's $5 million waterfront home in the Florida Keys because it's in his wife's name.

Investigators said during the trial that he spent the state's money renovating the house, including the addition of a $50,000 swimming pool.

Anthony said the jury's seizure order won't affect the civil suit.

"We will go after whatever we can get," he said.

Beginning in 1998, the workers' comp bureau gave Noe $25 million to invest in rare coins, followed by another $25 million in 2001.
At the same time, he began his rise to prominence in state politics.
Prosecutors accused Noe, 52, of spending money from the coin fund on his business, his home in the Florida Keys and other luxury items.

They did not say whether he used the money to make campaign contributions to Republicans, including President Bush.

With this 18-year sentence today, it looks like Noe gambled, and lost.


Noe refused 10-year term in plea deal

By MIKE WILKINSON
BLADE STAFF WRITER

November 20, 2006

When Tom Noe walks into Judge Thomas Osowik's court this morning, he faces 20 years or more in prison for stealing more than $1.1 million from the coin funds he managed for the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation.
But as Judge Osowik renders the sentence, both Noe and prosecutors know he could have gotten as little as 10 years if he had agreed to plead guilty more than nine months ago.

Lucas County Prosecutor Julia Bates acknowledged yesterday, for the first time, that members of the multiagency task force investigation into Noe and the bureau's investment practices had offered Noe a range of punishments if he admitted to crimes.
In addition to at least 10 years in prison, investigators sought a full accounting of his crimes backed up by polygraphs, forfeiture of his and his wife's home in the Florida Keys, and an undisclosed amount of restitution, likely in the millions.

The discussions took place prior to his indictment in February on 53 felony counts.
The prison term, Ms. Bates said, would have been separate from the federal prison time he was facing.
The Noe team declined the offer.

snip

On the eve of the sentencing, it has become clear that Noe lost a gamble with years of his life.

snip

When Noe enters prison, he may run into someone with whom he can commiserate.
Three years ago, local investment executive J. Richard Jamieson was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison for the collapse of Liberte Capital Group LLC, which cost investors at least $92 million. A jury found him guilty of 159 counts.
Like Noe, Jamieson rejected a plea bargain of 10 years.

And, to complete this dirty story, let's not forget:

Investigators began looking at the coin investments after The (Toledo) Blade revealed the funds' existence in April 2005, including concerns about whether the state's investment was being adequately protected.

Noe, a top GOP fundraiser who gave more than $105,000 to Republicans including Bush and Taft, also faces more than two years in federal prison after pleading guilty earlier this year to improperly funneling $45,000 to Bush's re-election campaign.

[mod mom]

10. So the injured workers of Ohio and their employers get bilked while Bernadette

gets to keep her lavish lifestyle? Tom got what he deserves, I only hope that John Conyers uses the subpoena power to investigate Bernadette's role in the '04 election theft (where she was Chair of the Lucas County BOE):

Blackwell, OH SOS's Investigation of the Lucas County BOE in '04:

includes the fact that REPUBLICAN VOLUNTEERS were allowed UNSUPERVISED ACCESS to UNSECURED BALLOTS prior to the election, as well as this list:

*failure to maintain ballot security
*Inability to implement and maintain a trackable system for voter ballot reconciliation .
*failure to prepare and develop a plan for the processing of the voluminous amount of voter registration forms received.
*issuance and acceptance of incorrect absentee ballot forms.
*manipulation of the process involving the 3% recount.
*disjointed implementation of the Directive regarding the removal of Nader and Camejo from the ballot .
*failure to properly issue hospital ballots in accordance with statutory requirements.
*failure to maintain the security of poll books during the official canvass
*failure to examine campaign finance reports in a timely manner.
*failure to guard and protect public documents ....etc.


-One-half of the ballots printed and used in the 2004 general election in Lucas county were stored in an open space on the fhird floor of the county warehouse with no security measures in place.
SOURCE: SOS Investigation on Lucas County BOE page 4



-Live ballots were delivered to polling locations a week in advance of the election. Although the ballots were retrieved, one board employee who was assigned to the warehouse informed the SOS staff that he did not believe all the ballots were successfully retrieved.
SOURCE; SOS Investigation, page 5



-Lucas County BOE failed to record or retrieve ballot stub numbers of absentee voters’ ballots as required by statute OH Revised Code 3505.23. It was reported by an elector that her mother had received not one, but three absentee voter ballots. there was no way to determine if similar incidents occurred and if so how many.
SOURCE: SOS Investigation, page 7




-October 4, 2004 was filing deadline for new voter registrations. At that point there were approximately 20,000 unprocessed voter registration applications with less than a month before the election. One mail tray containing 4,500-7,000 (estimates vary) unprocessed “Project Voter” registrations were discovered on or about October 18,2004.
SOURCE: SOS Investigation pg 10

***Of interest here is information obtained from the SOS website entitled ElectionsVoter/results 2003 and 2004 which show the # of registered voters number change from ‘03-’04 was 11,947 in Lucas County: reg voters 2003 in Lucas=288,190 ; registered voter in 2004=300,137.



-In late September or early October an employee of the Ohio Republican Party contacted Sam Thurber (*involved with politician wife Maggie Thurber in Noe scandal.) wanting to inspect and have copies made of all recently returned voter registrations, Ohio Republican Party offered to furnish volunteers to assist with copying postcards. No one at the Lucas County BOE can confirm that anyone was assigned to supervise Republican volunteers. On their second day of copying, a BOE employee, Jennifer Bernath, Democratic Booth Official) saw republican party volunteers peeling off the yellow return stickers applied by the post office. (Violation of RC 149.43 (B) (I) , and agruably a violation of 149.351.
SOURCE: SOS Investigation, pgs 18-19



-The Swanton 3 poll book turned up missing and has never been recovered.
SOURCE: SOS Investigation pg 16

http://www.sos.state.oh.us:80/sos/ElectionsVoter/OhioElections.aspx?Section=1008

[seafan]

11. She's probably not resting too easily yet. Oh, Mr. Conyerrrsss!!

Cleanup in Key Largo!

[Tight_rope]

14. Noe thought he would get away. He thought Tom DeLay & other would

protect him. He was so wrong. I can't wait to read about others like Noe who will live out their old age(rot in jail until they die)in jail. Justice is so sweet.

[Demit]

9. Noe first to learn it's not always OKIYAR.

[VegasWolf]

12. Well, he has at least 18 months until Bush pardons him as he leaves office. nt

[april]

13. who else is going to follow?

[fooj]

15. Noe sentenced to 18 YEARS!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061120/ap_on_re_us/investment_scandal

TOLEDO, Ohio - A GOP fundraiser who embezzled from a state investment in rare coins was sentenced Monday to 18 years in prison in a scandal that helped bring down Ohio's ruling Republican Party on Election Day.

Tom Noe, 52, was also fined $139,000.

Noe spent money as if he had "a bottomless cup of wealth and luxury" at his disposal, "when in fact it was at the state's expense," Common Pleas Judge Thomas Osowik said.

The sentence handed out to the politically connected coin dealer will be on top of the more than two years he was ordered to serve after pleading guilty earlier this year to illegally funneling $45,000 to President Bush's re-election campaign.

Noe was the central figure in a scandal that dogged the Ohio Republican Party for more than a year. On Election Day, the Democrats won the governor's office, a Senate seat and other major offices after 12 years of GOP rule.

Up until Monday, prosecutors did not say whether Noe used any of the money to make campaign contributions. But after the sentencing, Prosecutor Ron O'Brien said, "You can make those inferences."

Also for the first time, prosecutors calculated that Noe stole $13.7 million in all.

<snip>

[Divine Discontent]

16. WOW

the corruptors are getting their's, aren't they!


sorry for his fam, but he deserved something for his horrible mangling of state workers funds.

[Coventina]

17. Good! But how much will he actually serve I wonder?

:shrug:

[hippiechick]

18. earlier discussion:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2979727


:hi:

[fooj]

19. Thanks. I missed it.

:hi:

[newscott]

20. Has someone started a Pardon countdown yet?

[DainBramaged]

21. I wonder if Fox news will mention it?

[Vidar]

22. It's a start. I still want to see executions for treason in DC.