Coingate scandal

Coingate is a nickname for the Thomas Noe investment scandal in Ohio revealed in early 2005 in part by Ohio newspaper Toledo Blade. The Ohio government's Bureau of Workers' Compensation fund (BWC) invested hundreds of millions of dollars in high risk or unconventional investment vehicles run by people closely connected to the Ohio Republican party who had made large campaign contributions to many senior Republican party officials.

A rare coin investment fund has attracted particular scrutiny after it was reported that two coins worth more than $300,000 had been lost. Further investigation then revealled that coins worth $10-$12 million were missing and that only $13 million of the original $50 million invested could be accounted for.

Thomas Noe is a longtime prominent Bush Pioneer fundraiser. These allegedly stolen funds MAY have been the seed money used to finance fundraisers for the Bush-Cheney 2004 presidential campaign. A large fundraiser that is currently being investigated was held in 2003 in Columbus, Ohio that raised over 1.4 million dollars for the Bush campaign. The Columbus fundraiser was held about 20 miles from Bush Pioneer U.S. Rep Bob Ney's 18th Ohio Congressional Distract. Bob Ney is also being investigated for fundraising irregularities. This does not mean that they coordinated this fundraiser. It just points out that they were probably raising money from the same Republican donor list.

Background

In 1996, the Republican-controlled Ohio General Assembly passed a law that struck the requirement that the Ohio state government invest solely in bonds. Fund managers and other brokers then scrambled to offer their services. They also donated large amounts of money to politicians: finance records indicated almost a four-fold increase in donations following the legal change.

The Coingate scandal centers on Thomas Noe, an Ohio government figure, GOP fundraiser, and coin dealer. In a separate fundraising scandal, Noe was indicted by a federal grand jury in late October of 2005, charged with money laundering and for suspected violation of campaign contribution laws. See Thomas Noe for more information.

Coins

In 1998, Thomas Noe Inc. was awarded a $50 million investment contract for the Ohio Workers' Compensation fund. The company received $25 million to invest in 1998, and the same again in 2001. Before this, Mr. Noe and his then managers had increased their contributions to Republican candidates by nearly 10 times. To manage the investment, Thomas Noe Inc. used a newly created subsidiary of Noe's company Vintage Coins & Collectibles, called Capital Coin (in fact, Capital Coins Ltd. I and Capital Coins Ltd. II). Capital Coin then created subsidiaries Visionary Rare Coins, Numismatic Professionals, Rare Coin Alliance, and one named Karl D. Hirtzinger.

In 1998, Noe hired Mark Chrans to manage Visionary Rare Coins. Chrans had previously been convicted for fraud and perjury involving money-laundering in coin deals. Noe says he wasn't aware of Chrans' previous convictions. Spokesman Jeremy Jackson of the bureau said the bureau was also unaware of the convictions. In the end, Capital Coin wrote off $850,000 in losses from Visionary Rare Coins, including bad investments, unpaid loans, and advances on coin deals.

Michael Storeim, in Evergreen, Colorado, was hired to manage Numismatic Professionals He knew Chrans and had even written a letter to the federal court urging leniency in sentencing.

In 2003, Numismatic Professionals bought two coins for $185,000, an 1855 $3 gold coin and an 1845 $10 gold coin, thought to be worth $300,000 at market value. After sending the coins to be certified, they were allegedly lost on the way back. Storeim notified police, but they could not determine how the coins were lost and closed the case.

Unrelated to these missing coins, Noe, in 2004, hired forensic accountants Plante & Moran to examine the company's records based on "internal auditing controls." An additional 119 coins purchased at a cost of $93,000 were found to be missing and Noe informed the state that an employee of Numismatic Professionals was misappropriating assets. Likely related, in 2004 Storeim was both fired and barred from the Professional Numismatists Guild (of which Noe was a "statuatory agent") for ethics violations. Noe withheld $900,000 worth of bonuses to Storeim and confiscated $400,000 worth of coins. Storeim said he would sue Noe for confiscating the coins; it is currently unknown whether he did or will.

Capital Coin also loaned dealer Delaware Valley Rare Coins in Broomall, Pennsylvania, which is not owned or controlled by Noe, $300,000 from the fund, which the dealer then used for his own business. The dealer used property in New Jersey as collateral. The Ohio newspaper The Toledo Blade made a public records request to the government to view the mortgage documents. Capital Coin had redacted the records, blacking out the address of the property and the owners. The Ohio attorney general ordered Noe to release the documents, noting "anyone pledging property as collateral to back publicly funded investments must make their name and address public." Lawyers for Capital Coin refused. The case was eventually settled.

Only $13 million of the original $50 million invested has been recovered to date.

Investigation

On May 24, 2005, Thomas Noe Inc. was sued by the state of Ohio on behalf of the BWC. The judge granted The Ohio Attorney General's request to immediately freeze the assets and The BWC was given complete control of the coin funds.

Ohio state investigators immediately began to check inventory of the various companies, reviewing records and documents at Numismatic Professionals and another subsidiary in Sarasota, Florida^[1]. However, investigators were denied access to one of Capital Coin's subsidiaries in Monclova Township, Ohio^[2] and to Delaware Valley Rare Coins. Noe said access was denied to the Ohio location because his lawyers were busy in Colorado and Florida and he said he was initially told the Ohio company was to be searched later. Noe said he neither owns nor controls Delaware Valley Rare Coins, reasoning that this is the reason investigators were denied access^[3].

The Ohio inspector general became involved and asked to see the coins. $10-12 million worth of coins were apparently unaccounted for.

On July 13, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled 5-2 that the coin-fund records were public record and should be released, rejecting the state's argument that the information was "trade secrets" and exempt from the Ohio Public Records Act. The case was heard by five Ohio appellate court justices, as five of the Supreme Court justices recused themselves having accepted campaign donations from Noe. However, after two weeks, Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro had released only 3 of the 120 boxes of documents. The Toledo Blade, on July 28, filed a motion to find the state in contempt.

Among the individuals subpoenaed for the investigation was Lucas County Commissioner Maggie Thurber.

Notes

1. ^ From information available, it is unclear which subsidiary is located where.
2. ^ From information available, it is unclear why investigators were necessarily denied access to this company.

Video Game

A video game has been created that pokes fun at the entire affair. The game resides on the personal website of one Jason Griffith, who is running for State Senate in Ohio. See "External Links" for a link to the download location of this game.

External links

• Special Report: Ohio Coin Funds, CoinLink
• www.coingate.info
• "Coins of the Realm", Alternet, 29 June, 2005
• "What's the Matter With Ohio?", by Paul Krugman, New York Times, 17 June, 2005
• Hicks Must Go
• "Coingate, the video game"