Licking County Pro-Active Citizens

Coingate Updates

Coingate in Ohio has been fairly quiet lately as investigations continue and the politics play out.

So where are we now ? Lot's of little interesting tidbits the last few days.

Jim Petro the Ohio Attorney General is trying to rehabilitate himself from his very poor (non existent Performance) before the story broke, as he sees his Gubernatorial aspirations crash.

So let's begin our story with the central character - Tom Noe, and Jim Petro below the fold

Coingate Updates.

We haven't brought much coingate lately, because there hasn't been too much new news (how much is Ohio GOP corruption news these days?) but if you want to catch up on the latest details, the Blade has a nice section.

Taft and His Golfing Buddy

As we have said before, it isn't the free golf trips and gifts that are central to the corruption of Bob Taft, it's what was discussed and acted on while knocking that little white ball around plush Ohio golf courses. Things like this, the Blade reports.

COLUMBUS - On May 13, 2001, as they changed into business suits after showering in the locker room of Toledo's Inverness Club after a round of golf, Tom Noe told Gov. Bob Taft about the $25 million rare-coin fund he operated for the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation, according to an account released by Mr. Noe's attorney yesterday.




And Mr. Noe used the discussion to tell the governor "about his pending application for the second $25 million coin fund," the statement said.


The bureau approved the second $25 million installment two months later - in July, 2001.

...

William Wilkinson, Mr. Noe's attorney, would not provide any more details about Mr. Noe's account of the discussion on Mother's Day in 2001, including why Mr. Noe brought up the topic three years after he received the first $25 million and whether he asked Mr. Taft for help in getting the second $25 million.


Mr. Wilkinson said more information would be shared with the U.S. Attorney's offices from the Northern and Southern Districts of Ohio, and the prosecutors of Lucas and Franklin counties.


"More was said, and the remainder of what was said, Mr. Noe would discuss only with the official government investigators,'' said Mr. Wilkinson, who said it's unclear when that would happen. "I think they would have an interest in it."

Bob Taft Is A Bad Boy

It's been a while since we posted any updates on coingate. Well things are starting to look pretty grim for the Gov.

COLUMBUS — Not only did Gov. Bob Taft golf with Tom Noe and a Toledo businessman on Mother’s Day in 2001, but he also stuck around for a pricey brunch at Toledo’s exclusive Inverness Club.

State ethics officials today will meet to discuss whether the governor violated Ohio ethics laws and should face the same fate of his former chief of staff, Brian Hicks, who was convicted on criminal charges last month for accepting gifts from Mr. Noe without reporting them, as mandated by state law.

The Inverness outing is among dozens of gifts not disclosed by Mr. Taft that are being explored by the Ohio Ethics Commission, which launched an investigation into the governor in June amid concerns that he failed to report a number of golf outings on his state-required financial disclosure forms.

Last week, the governor released documents that showed he had accepted invitations to about 25 golf outings since taking office in 1999, but the records failed to state who paid for him to play.

The list included the 2001 golf outing at Inverness, which included State Sen. Randy Gardner (R., Bowling Green), Mr. Noe, and Toledo businessman Mike Wilcox.

Mr. Wilcox said he paid for Mr. Taft and Mr. Gardner to golf at Inverness, but he could not recall whether he or Mr. Noe picked up the governor’s tab for his share of the brunch.

He did remember that he paid for caddies to carry golf clubs for Mr. Taft and Mr. Gardner, as well as snacks and drinks on the course for the two politicians.

None of the gifts was disclosed by the governor or state senator.
State law requires public officials to report all gifts valued above $75.

A ruling by the commission in 2001 also barred state officials from accepting golf outings from people doing business with their agencies.

The cost of the brunch at Inverness, on top of the cost of greens fees, caddies, and other expenses could raise the amount of the gift received by Mr. Taft and Mr. Gardner well above the $75 threshold for disclosing gifts, two sources close to the ethics investigation told The Blade.

The Ethics Commission meets at 10 a.m. today and plans to spend several hours behind closed doors.

Well, that ethics meeting this morning obviously didnt go to well for Bob.

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- A state ethics board investigating Gov. Bob Taft's failure to report several golf outings indicated Thursday its inquiry was complete and it would forward the results to prosecutors.

The announcement by Ohio Ethics Commission Executive Director David Freel did not mention Taft or any details of the agency's investigation.

Taft, a Republican, has acknowledged the commission is investigating his golf outings but has repeatedly declined to comment until the process was complete.

The commission has "completed its investigation of matters before it and will be in contact with the appropriate prosecutors as required," Freel said.

Freel said he could not say more under state laws governing the commission. But he made it clear the commission isn't worried about the political status of anyone it is investigating.

"The commission believes the law equally applies to everybody, at whatever level of government," Freel said Thursday. "Our past history shows it and I think our future history will show it as well."

Taft's office would not immediately comment.

Tafts' defense doesn't sound too good.

COLUMBUS - Citing groundbreaking theory of law, Gov. Bob Taft's lawyer in today's Toledo Blade told reporters that the Governor did not violate Ohio's ethics laws because he had "coupons" from the exclusive Inverness County Club during his infamous unreported golf outing with Tom Noe.

"This must be groundbreaking theory of law," said Gabrielle Williamson, spokesperson for the Ohio Democratic Party.  "What's next, a get out of jail free card?  Can this Republican scandal get any more ridiculous and insult the intelligence of Ohioans any worse?"

To emphasize the hypocrisy of the so-called "coupon defense," Democrats have decided to get ahead of the curve on the creative imaginations of GOP lawyers. "We've fashioned coupons for Tom Noe's friends to help them out of this mess. We personally don't believe they have any value - but who knows, if the "coupon defense" works maybe GOP lawyers can use them too!" said Williamson tounge in cheek.

Coingate Perp Walks

The first folks convicted in the coin scandal

COLUMBUS — Two former aides to Gov. Bob Taft — former Chief of Staff Brian Hicks and his former executive assistant, Cherie Carroll — were convicted and fined by a judge yesterday for taking gifts from coin dealer Tom Noe — a political climber who golfed with the governor and sought audiences with President Bush.

Mr. Noe, over the 1980s and 1990s, worked hard to painstakingly chisel a powerful image — one for the governor’s staff to revere and for power brokers to admire as he spread hundreds of thousands of dollars across the state to Republican candidates.

There is going to me many more. Because the corruption goes deep

COLUMBUS - When it came to appointing a new trustee to the board of the Medical University of Ohio in 2003, the governor's office ignored doctor's orders and followed the advice of coin dealer and political confidante Tom Noe.

At the time, the choice of the school's acting president, Dr. Amira Gohara, was Geoffrey Meyers, an executive with Manor Care, a national nursing home company with headquarters in Toledo.

In a letter to Gov. Bob Taft on May 29, 2003, Dr. Gohara and William Connelly, MUO's general counsel, endorsed Mr. Meyers, saying he would bring "welcome expertise" in finance and reimbursement to the medical college.

But then Mr. Noe got involved, registering a complaint with Brian Hicks, Gov. Bob Taft's chief of staff in July.

Within a month, Mr. Meyers was out of the picture and one of Mr. Noe's friends, Carroll Ashley, was in.

Yup, That Brian Hicks, who was just convicted. Taft is up to his neck in it, and no one is buying his stories anymore. The Ohio Attorney General looks like he has his finger in the dyke right now too

COLUMBUS — In the two weeks since the Ohio Supreme Court ordered the state to make public the records of rare-coin funds managed by Tom Noe for the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation, only three of an estimated 120 boxes of documents have been released.

Because of the slow pace of handing over the records, The Blade asked the Supreme Court yesterday to find the bureau and the two coin funds in contempt of court and requested that a receiver be appointed to take custody of the records.

Blade attorney Fritz Byers, in the motion, labeled the attorney general’s conduct a “disobedient refusal” to comply with the high court’s July 13 ruling.

Mr. Byers rejected state Attorney General Jim Petro’s announcement last week that he is “obligated” to review the documents before they are released to the public and the media.

“The Supreme Court’s ruling is clear and indisputably correct,” Mr. Byers said yesterday in an interview. “Neither the ruling nor any of the principles of law suggests that the attorney general or any other official can review the records to determine if the Supreme Court was correct in ordering that they be made public.”

In his motion before the high court, Mr. Byers criticized the attorney general’s attempt to review the documents before they are released.

“The position taken by the attorney general ... manifests either immense disrespect for the constitutional allocation of powers or an incredible tone-deafness,” he wrote. “The public repudiation of this court’s judgment by the state’s attorney general can have no other effect than a grievous erosion in respect for the rule of law.”

Petro took forever to investigate these crimes, and now he continues to stall at the very least. Why would he be reviewing documents before their release ? Given the level of corruption it makes one very suspicious indeed, and so too does this story, again from the awesome Blade staff

COLUMBUS — U.S. Attorney Gregory White, a leader in a multiagency task force investigating powerful Republicans in Ohio, asked for help from Gov. Bob Taft’s office to get the federal post he now holds, records released by Mr. Taft’s office yesterday show.

Mr. White asked the governor to call President Bush on his behalf in August, 2002. A week later, top Bush aide Karl Rove was given the phone numbers of Brian Hicks, the governor’s former chief of staff.
In February, 2003, after Mr. White was named interim U.S. attorney, Mr. Hicks sent a congratulatory e-mail to Mr. White.

“Great to hear! The Gov. just asked me this morning if I had heard anything about your status. He was pleased to learn of the news,” Mr. Hicks wrote on Feb. 2.

The e-mails show a relationship between one of the lead attorneys in Ohio’s biggest corruption scandal in decades and the governor whose administration is under intense scrutiny.

Mr. White could not be reached for comment last night. Both the Justice Department and the White House could not say what role, if any, Mr. Taft played in the appointment.

Looks to us that the Ohio GOP have the Foxes investigating who killed the chickens.

Dirty Money

We reported on Karl Roves lawyer previously getting paid by a client in gold bars, it would seem Tom Noe's lawyers didn't want to get out done.

COLUMBUS - Law firms reaped thousands of dollars in fees from the state's $50 million rare coin investment with Tom Noe, raising questions about how the coin funds were managed and whether they served as Mr. Noe's personal account.

Facing criminal and civil action by state and federal authorities, Mr. Noe used money from the state coin funds he managed to pay more than $12,000 to law firms during 2004 and 2005, according to records released by the attorney general's office last week.

Attorney General Jim Petro said last week that Mr. Noe transferred nearly $4 million from the coin funds to private accounts, alleging that the money was spent on luxury vacation homes, automobiles, and boats.

As the state inspector general began to investigate the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation's coin funds in April, Mr. Noe hired the same lawyer responsible for vetting the bureau's investments and paid him from the state coin fund's checking account.

"They used the injured workers' dollars to defend the state and Tom Noe," said state Rep. Chris Redfern (D., Catawba Island), the House minority leader. "And he probably filed briefs from houses bought with BWC money."

The coin funds paid a $10,000 retainer to David Robinson, a partner at Schottenstein, Zox, & Dunn and special counsel for the bureau, to defend Mr. Noe and his personal business, Vintage Coin and Collectibles. Mr. Robinson was unavailable for comment.

Despite receiving faxed copies of the checks paid to the Columbus-based law firm, Alan Starkoff, a Schottenstein, Zox & Dunn partner, declined to acknowledge whether Mr. Robinson had appropriately considered the conflict of having both Mr. Noe and the bureau as clients.

This massive scandal seems to have no bottom. Is there anyone who hasn't taken injured workers money ?

Tee Time For Taft

The Dispatch reported this, and the Advocate picks it up

NEWARK -- The Longaberger Co. found itself caught up in Gov. Bob Taft's golf scandal Thursday after disclosing it failed to report a free round of golf provided to the governor, as required by law.

Michael Bennett, Longaberger's vice president of corporate affairs, amended the company's state ethics statement for the September through December 2003 filing period to include a $125 round of golf Taft played at the Longaberger Golf Course on Sept. 12 of that year.

The Columbus Dispatch reported Wednesday that unnamed sources said Taft filed documents with the Ohio Ethics Commission listing 50 or 60 free golf outings he previously failed to disclose.

State officials must report any gift of more than $75. Knowingly filing a false ethics report is a misdemeanor crime.

Longaberger discovered Taft had not paid for the round during a review of its records prompted by a recent call from the Ohio Ethics Commission, said spokeswoman Bonny Fowler. She called the round's omission from the report an "oversight."

Wonder if Longaberger would let just anyone play and pay them kinda like "whenever" ? It is well know that the Longaberger girls, Tammi and Rachel are big Republicans. Again, you decide.

Noe Is a Thief

Yesterday the blade reported

COLUMBUS — Tom Noe stole millions of dollars from the state and used a “Ponzi” scheme to fabricate profits within the state’s $50 million rare-coin investment, Ohio’s attorney general said yesterday.

“There was an absolute theft of funds going on,” Attorney General Jim Petro said.

Mr. Petro said there is evidence that Mr. Noe pocketed nearly $4 million in money invested with the coin fund through the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation since 1998.

Mr. Petro asked a judge to further restrict the former Toledo-area coin dealer from selling personal assets because he believes they may have been purchased with state money.

State officials yesterday laid out a complicated scheme of payments between companies Mr. Noe controlled, which they say resulted in the theft of state money.

The attorney general said the theft began on March 31, 1998, the day Mr. Noe received the first of two $25 million payments from the workers’ compensation bureau, and continued until late May — more than eight weeks after The Blade first reported on April 3 that there were problems with the state’s investment.

“On Day One, Tom Noe took $1.375 million and put it in his personal or his business account,” Mr. Petro said. Records show that Mr. Noe immediately began using the state’s money for his personal use, the attorney general said.

A week later, Mr. Noe and his wife, Bernadette, made $4,500 in contributions to then-Secretary of State Bob Taft’s campaign for governor.

In the three months after the $1.375 million transfer of state funds, Mr. Noe made thousands of dollars in political contributions, including an additional $2,500 to Mr. Taft, $2,000 to then-Gov. George Voinovich’s Senate campaign, and $500 to Mr. Petro’s campaign for re-election to the state auditor post he held before becoming attorney general.

Get your elected buddies to give you nice contracts and not ask questions, steal money from those state funds and then give a bundle back as thanks - really a very simple story.

Today Petro got a grilling for sitting on this scandal for so long, hoping it would go away...Not sure if he is impersonating Abbott or Costello, you decide

Petro Q&A

At a news conference in Columbus yesterday, Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro leveled charges against Tom Noe and rebuffed criticism that his office did not act quickly enough to investigate problems with the state’s failed $50 million rare-coin fund.

Blade: “We reported on April 3 that there were missing coins, $850,000 written off. Why wasn’t that enough for you to take action?”

Petro: “That wasn’t a cause of action at that point against the coin fund. We didn’t know who the parties were. The missing coin could have been from [Michael] Storeim in Colorado. There were a number of other players. It required more information.”

Blade: “But you waited until May 25?”

Petro: “We filed a civil complaint at a point where we had a civil cause of action. I know my good friend [State Sen.] Marc Dann would disagree with me. And he and I have talked about that. You don’t just simply file a lawsuit until you know the facts are sufficient to present a cause of action. Otherwise, your lawsuit gets dismissed.”

Blade: “Do you have [Tom Noe’s] bank records too? His personal bank records?”

Petro: “We have the bank records as those records were included in the records that were taken by search warrant from Vintage Coin’s offices in Maumee. That’s the only records we have. We’re now beginning the subpoena process.”

Blade: “Are you investigating the people that allowed this to happen at the BWC [Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation]? The people that signed off without the legal review of your office. Are you looking at the bank records of Terry Gasper, Jim Conrad, those people?”

Petro: “That will all be part of our investigation.”

Blade: “You’ll be looking at the personal finances of the state officials that helped this happen?”

Petro: “Not every official you named, but certainly some of them.”

Blade: “How about people in the governor’s office that helped this happen?”

Petro: “That will remain to be seen. We’ll have to have some measure of suspicion. You know, clearly now our suspicion is heightened on a whole variety of fronts.”

Other media: “Is Noe still accessible to you or has he become a flight risk?”

Petro: “I don’t think he’s a flight risk necessarily. I don’t think he’s going to leave. He clearly does not spend all of his time within the jurisdiction in Ohio.”

Blade: “He’s left Ohio, right?”

Petro: “Yeah. But I don’t think he’s going to leave the United States.”

Other media: “Well, who would be responsible now for making sure he doesn’t leave?”

Petro: “That’s the criminal side. That really is prosecutors and others. He’s surrendered his passport.”

Blade: “Can’t you go to Mexico without a passport, though?”

Petro: “I know you can go to Canada. Can you go to Mexico? I think you can go to Mexico without a passport.”

Ohio Coingate - The Mclellan Defense

It would appear that Governor Taft is trying to employ the Scottie Mclellan Defense..lie, hide and cover up.

Asides from the on going purge of under performing fund managers, this week has seen a couple of significant developments in coingate and all things related.

First, documents. No one wants to give them up. Not the BWC and not the governor. The Ohio supreme Court just told the BWC to stick it, in a 5-2 decision (luckily 5 of the Supremes had to recuse themselves and have stand-in hear the case). The BWC excuse for not wanting to do this is quite funny.

toledoblade.com :

COLUMBUS -- Ruling in a lawsuit filed by The Blade, the Ohio Supreme Court yesterday ordered the Bureau of Workers' Compensation to release all transaction records from the $50 million rare-coin investment that Tom Noe controlled.

In a 5-2 decision, the high court rejected the state's argument that the records -- which show the sellers, dates, and purchase prices of coins in the state's inventory -- are "trade secrets" exempt from the Ohio Public Records Act.

Trade Secrets.  I guess the secret is how to swindle the state and not get caught. since they did get caught, i think that defense fell apart. Oh well.

 

The documents should be released immediately for public inspection, wrote Democratic Justice Alice Robie Resnick of Ottawa Hills for the majority.

Justice Paul Pfeifer, a Republican, added in a concurring opinion: "From the outset, the Bureau of Workers' Compensation's `trade secret' argument seemed more a delaying tactic than a legitimate legal issue."

Petro, running for governor, is also running for cover.
toledoblade.com :

Mark Anthony, a spokesman for state Attorney General Jim Petro -- a Republican who is seeking his party's nomination for governor next year -- said the state will not ask the Supreme Court to reconsider its decision.

Mr. Anthony referred other questions to the bureau, saying: "We're their lawyer, not their spokesman."

Be interesting to see what all is in these documents. Next week should be interesting to see what develops.

The other case,  was State Senator Dann going after documents from the Governor (Mr Popular)-  it revolves around "what did he know and when did he know it ?

Taft claims he knew nothing of this FUBAR until the blade broke the story, everyone else is guessing the truth is something different.

Apparently we ain't allowed to know the answer to this because of "executive privillage"

COLUMBUS - Gov. Bob Taft asked the Ohio Supreme Court yesterday for a "protective order" to prevent a Democratic state senator from questioning him and Chief of Staff Jon Allison under oath about failed investments at the Bureau of Workers' Compensation.

the blade, on a roll, gets snippy..

John Robinson Block, publisher and editor-in-chief of The Blade, cheered the Supreme Court decision, but said Gov.Bob Taft needs to release weekly reports he has received from the bureau, dating to 1999.

Mr. Taft has claimed he does not need to release the information, citing executive privilege.

"We're pleased with the court's decision [ed: the BWC case] and hope Governor Taft will convince his underlings to release records and stop violating Ohio Public Records law," Mr. Block said.

"We are confident of our legal position."

underlings. hehe. the final smack down comes from a Blade editorial
toledoblade.com :

Our natural reaction, however, and that of the public, is to wonder what Mr. Taft has to hide relative to what he knew about the rare-coin investment and when he knew it. He says he didn't become aware of the BWC's two rare-coin funds until he read about them in The Blade in April. Do the weekly reports he clutches close to his chest suggest otherwise?

Maybe the governor should be careful what he wishes for. To invoke executive privilege would be to invent a tool for similar abuse by the next governor, and the way things are going, that could certainly be a Democrat.

When you add up this entire scandal, from missing coins to hedge fund failures and everything in between and then add on this massive price gouging we are looking at well over $600 million dollars, just from one state run organization - still at least no one in Ohio has outed a CIA Agent, yet.

Rip Off

More Rips offs occuring at the BWC, this time the Sunday Dispatch reports ...

The Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation has become a cash cow for hospitals, paying them half a billion dollars more than it cost to treat injured workers during the past seven years.

Those expenditures — often more than double the actual cost of care — far exceed what private and other government insurers pay for comparable treatment.

The excessive payments easily top the $300 million the bureau may have lost in bad investments in recent years, a shortfall that has become the focus of multiple investigations.

Although hospital officials disagree that they’re reaping unseemly profits, employers and unions both say the payments are outrageous.

"This one slice of health-care service is really being gouged to bring a wholly disproportionate amount of profit for nonprofit hospitals,"
said Dave Regan, president of the Service Employees International Union District 1199, representing 27,000 health-care workers in Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia.

In a study provided to The Dispatch, the union analyzed millions of bureau billing records and found that hospitals were paid 71 percent more than their actual costs to treat Ohioans in 2003. Last year, the markup was 59 percent.

Since the Bureau of Workers’ Compensation launched its current payment setup in 1997, the agency has paid hospitals more than $1.6 billion for treatments that cost less than $1.1 billion — leaving the nonprofit hospitals with about $544 million in profit, the Columbus-based union found.

While readily conceding that hospitals need to make money, employers agree with the union that such a high profit margin seems extreme.

"That’s a lot of money," said Eric Burkland, president of the Ohio Manufacturers’ Association, which represents 1,800 companies that pay into the system.

"It could create a lot of jobs and put a lot of new technology in our facilities."

Jobs. Something Ohio needs desperately.

Records show payments to hospitals increased 80 percent between 1997 and 2003, though the number of injured workers dropped by nearly a third during the same period.

The union’s methodology is sound, said Nancy Kane, a professor at the Harvard School of Public Health who is widely considered a national expert on hospital costs.
...
In 2004, the bureau paid hospitals $270 million for treating injured workers.

If the bureau had paid hospitals at the same rate as Medicare, the tab last year would have been about $161 million. If the rate was the same as for private insurers, the bureau would have paid hospitals about
$207 million.
...
Several factors point to special treatment of hospitals by the Bureau of Workers’ Compensation:

• The bureau has never conducted an audit of the $1.6 billion paid to
hospitals in the past seven years.

• Under their agreement with the bureau, hospitals face no penalties
for fudging costs and no incentive to keep costs down.

• Other state agencies have moved away from the method used by the
bureau to pay hospitals because of its lofty price tag.

This is simply outrageous. Between the BWC investments scandals and this, Ohio has been bilked by almost a billion dollars !

Dan Dodd Nails the Issue

Dan Dodd, Former candidate for the Ohio House has a good column in this weeks advocate regarding coingate and the corrupting power corporations have had.

With the Bureau of Workers' Compensation "coingate" scandal growing every day, it is not surprising that any politician remotely involved is taking pains to distance himself or herself from the possibly criminal actions of those investing BWC money.

Politicians quoted in various media outlets have universally condemned the actions of the men and women involved in the poor investment decisions. And while the claims of some of those politicians about "what they knew and when they knew it" are dubious, to say the least, I am sure most Ohioans agree all of those men and women responsible for these bad decisions should be held accountable -- including any elected officials who ignored the warning signs or looked the other way while money was lost.

I agree with the men and women of this state who believe the wrongdoers should have to answer for their actions. However, I cannot agree with the politicians running the Ohio House and Senate who believe injured workers should ultimately pay the price for the actions of the people who pulled the wool over our eyes. While the BWC was losing nearly $250 million through bad investments with political cronies, BWC officials were busy testifying in support of Senate Bill 7.

SB 7 strips injured workers of numerous rights while giving more of an advantage to big corporations, who already enjoy a slanted playing field. Provisions in the bill would make it more difficult for injured workers to prove a work injury aggravated a preexisting condition and would also reduce wage-loss benefits which are paid when injured workers receive compensation for lost wages when they accept a lesser-paying job due to their injuries. These proposed reforms will make Ohio's workers' compensation system even more anti-worker and continue a pattern of destroying the rights of injured workers.

If this was not bad enough, many of the provisions being pushed on behalf of large corporations to the detriment of injured workers have already been voted on statewide and defeated by a large margin. In 1997, the Ohio House and Senate, at the request of large corporations, rammed through legislation deliberately designed to limit the rights of injured workers.

Thankfully, some organizations banded together to put the legislation on the ballot to give everyone in Ohio a say in how we treat injured workers. The people spoke out and voted against the legislation. Provisions included in the current legislation, including reductions in the statutes of limitations, the requirement of proving a "substantial" aggravation of preexisting injuries and the drastic reduction of eligibility for non-working wage loss, were voted down by a count of 57 percent to 43 percent.

Unfortunately, the big corporate CEOs and their lobbyists are at it again and injured workers may have to pay the price for their greed.

I encourage all of you to contact your State Representative and find out how he or she intends to vote on the pending workers' compensation legislation. Please let your state representative know that injured workers should not have to pay the price for the mismanagement of the BWC by political cronies. Our injured workers deserve better treatment and our General Assembly does not appear ready to give workers the respect and dignity they have earned.

It's not just the money and corruption, it's the damage that that money has paid for that many Ohioans will be suffering from. The Ohio State House needs representatives who will work for the good of the people and not work for the corporations money.

Taft Gets A Lawyer

The Ohio Coingate scandal today reached a new depth, with the governor having to get a lawyer.

As a widening scandal at the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation threatens his administration, Gov. Bob Taft last night admitted that he had failed to include golf outings on his annual financial disclosure statements filed with the Ohio Ethics Commission.

A source, speaking on the condition of anonymity, yesterday said that Tom Noe, a Toledo-area coin dealer at the heart of the state investment scandal, told him at Toledo’s Inverness Club in 2002 that he was playing golf there with Governor Taft.

The source, who had played golf in the morning, said Mr. Noe told him he would play golf with the governor that afternoon. The source told The Blade that he did not see Mr. Taft, but heard later there may have been other occasions when Ohio’s governor played the Inverness course with Mr. Noe.

Mark Rickel, Mr. Taft’s press secretary, refused to confirm or deny that Mr. Taft had failed to list one or more golf outings involving Mr. Noe on his financial disclosure statements.

He also would not say how many golf outings Mr. Taft had failed to disclose since taking office in 1999.

State law requires officeholders to list each source of gifts over $75. A round of golf at Inverness for a guest is about $140.

The governor’s office last night issued a statement about the golf outings after The Blade earlier in the day began asking questions about whether Mr. Taft would file an addendum to his financial disclosure statement.

“On my own initiative, I have determined that financial disclosure forms filed annually with the Ohio Ethics Commission failed to include golf outings in which I participated. Realizing that I had made errors, I thought the most appropriate course of action was to notify the Commission. I did so on June 14, 2005.

“I am currently conducting a full review of previously filed disclosure statements to ensure that the Commission has received complete and accurate information. I take full responsibility for any errors and omissions and will continue to cooperate with the Commission in this matter,” Mr. Taft wrote.

The governor attached to the statement a letter dated June 14 to Merom Brachman, chairman of the Ethics Commission.

“It has recently come to my attention that I failed to list a number of golf outings or events on my financial disclosure forms over the past several years,” he wrote.

It is a first-degree misdemeanor to knowingly falsify an ethics form, with a maximum penalty of six months in jail and/or a $1,000 fine.

Mr. Taft has hired an attorney to represent him on the matter.

The Ohio Democratic Party is ratcheting up the pressure, with new TV ads attacking the corruption and growing scandal, and the DNC is ready to pour money and support into Ohio in 2005 and 2006 in an effort to overcome the obvious problems with one party rule.

The governor has forced aids to resign under very similar circumstances in the past, the question remains - will he apply the same standard to his own behaviour. It is also emerging that many other politicians also have some serious issues with not filing their ethics forms truthfully.

Noe attorney William C. Wilkinson said he thinks he is aware of every instance in which Noe entertained public officials but that Noe will discuss those details only with government investigators.

He declined to say how many public officials or what type of entertainment was involved.

Failure to disclose golf outings involving those doing business with the state has played at least a partial role in the departure of four top state officials during the past three years:

• Randall A. Fischer resigned as director of the Ohio School Facilities Commission in July 2002. He pleaded guilty to two misdemeanors for accepting free rounds of golf, hockey tickets and meals from contractors to whom he awarded unbid contracts worth millions.

• Former Consumers’ Counsel Robert S. Tongren quit in November 2003 after an investigation found he accepted dozens of expensive golf outings and meals from utility lobbyists. He admitted to four misdemeanors.

• When a probe in September 2003 showed that Richard P. Frenette, manager of the state fair, and other employees improperly accepted golf passes and other favors from vendors doing business with the fair, Taft called on the Ohio Expositions Commission to "take prompt and appropriate action." Frenette quit two days later.

• Taft issued a quit-or-be-fired ultimatum in August 2002 to Gino Zomparelli, director of the Ohio Turnpike Commission, the day after a probe found he and 30 other turnpike officials were showered with golf outings, free meals and sports tickets by companies doing business with the agency. Zomparelli quit the next day.

Looks like Noe is prepared to sing, judging by his Lawyers comments above. Anyone who has had dealings with this man, and has taken his money, pay for play ought to be as concerned as the Governor with going to jail.

Not Since Enron

A few million here, a few million there, and a whopping half billion somewhere else.

Two weeks after revealing a $215 million loss in a risky hedge fund, the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation yesterday confirmed it has another half billion dollars invested in two other hedge funds.
 
  The $550 million investment, in two funds offered by Minneapolis-based American Express Asset Management, represents 4 percent of the portfolio created to pay expenses of Ohio workers injured on the job.
  ...
  He said officials at the bureau did not become aware of the two additional hedge funds until late May following the resignation of administrator James Conrad.
  ...
  The American Express investments were opened on March 3, 1998, which was six years before bureau personnel were authorized to invest in high-risk hedge funds, said Tracy Valentino, chief financial officer. Unclear, however, is whether the investments began as hedge funds or as permissible investments in traditional stock and bond funds, Mr. Jackson said.
 
  News of the half-billion dol-lars in hedge funds surprised but did not shock BWC critic Marc Dann, a Democratic state senator from suburban Youngstown.
 
  “Not since Enron has so much money been so badly managed,” Mr. Dann said. “The only questions that are left for a real independent investigating committee is whether it’s incompetence or corruption.”

And speaking of corruption, more questionable loans, this time to pay for campaign ads.

After jumping into the 2002 Lucas County commissioner's race against Democratic powerhouse Sandy Isenberg about two months before Election Day, Maggie Thurber needed a quick infusion of cash.

It appears that her close friend and top local GOP fund-raiser Tom Noe came through for her.

Mr. Noe, now an embattled coin dealer facing state and federal criminal investigations, loaned the Lucas County Republican Party's candidates' fund $40,000 on Oct. 22, 2002 - the day before the fund paid the same amount to a Columbus firm that bought a series of television ads for Ms. Thurber on Toledo stations.

Maggie Thurbers husband you might recall was on the Lucas County Board of Elections that has had so many troubles. He in fact had to resign from that post. Maggies got a few doozies of excuses herself for this latest revelation...

Ms. Thurber said she doesn't know whether the money Mr. Noe gave the party - only a few thousand dollars of which was repaid - was used to pay for her ads.
...
  "From a personal standpoint, I go back to my faith, which teaches that you hate the sin but love the sinner," Ms. Thurber said.

What's the Matter With Ohio?

Coingate reporting hits the big time, in an op-ed from the NYT and Paul Krugman.

Since their 1994 takeover of Congress, and even more so since the 2000 election, Republican leaders have sought to make their political dominance permanent. They redistricted Texas to lock in their control of the House. Through the "K Street Project" they have put lobbying firms under partisan control, starving the Democrats of campaign funds. And they are, of course, trying to pack the courts with partisan loyalists.

In effect, they're trying to turn America into a giant version of the elder Richard Daley's Chicago.

These efforts have already created an environment in which politicians from the right party and businessmen with the right connections believe, with good reason, that they have immunity.

And politicians who feel that they can exploit their position tend to do just that. It's a likely bet that the scandals we already know about, from Coingate to Tom DeLay's dealings with the lobbyist Jack Abramoff, are just the tip of the iceberg.

The message from Ohio is that long-term dominance by a political machine leads to corruption, regardless of the policies that machine follows or the ideology it claims to represent.

From the "uh-huh" Files of Coingate

toledoblade.com :

COLUMBUS — The suburban Denver home of a former employee of Tom Noe was burglarized over the weekend, with thieves making off with artwork, guns, jewelry, cars, and $300,000 in wine — possibly purchased with money from the state of Ohio.

Michael Storeim, a suspect in a Colorado criminal probe into Ohio’s missing coins, reported Monday night the valuables had been taken from his Evergreen, Colo., home while he was vacationing with his wife..

Convenient huh ? Clearly State Senator Dann thinks so.

State Sen. Marc Dann, a Democrat from suburban Youngstown, called the reported burglary “an amazing coincidence.”

“Clearly, this is more than a coincidence,” he said. “I hate to be cynical, but I think I’m a little bit suspicious. This whole thing gets weirder and weirder."

Different Day, Same Stuff

Speaking of corruption, it wouldnt be a new day without some Tom Noe and coingate.

Last June, Tom Noe and Pete Silverman wanted to talk about some important business with Rob Sheehan, a senior vice provost at the University of Toledo.

The topic was Hi-Genomics, a high-tech agricultural start-up firm at the university that was founded by Professor Stephen Goldman, a friend of both men.

Over lunch at the exclusive Inverness Club, they made their pitch to Mr. Sheehan. Hi-Genomics’s university scientists had developed a new technology and they wanted a licensing agreement for it.

Aware that it took months of contentious negotiations to develop an existing license, Mr. Silverman asked Mr. Sheehan to expedite the request.

At the end of the meeting, Mr. Noe, who was chairman of the Ohio Board of Regents, revealed the real reason he was there: He was an investor in the company.

Mr. Noe, whose position as a regent had a tremendous impact on the university, was now asking for help for a private business venture at the university.

“My jaw just kind of dropped,” Mr. Sheehan recalled last week. “I felt uncomfortable.”

Ohio Coingate - The Voinovich Genesis

When trying to piece together this story, its like flakes of it are floating around everywhere.
How was it possible for the BWC to invest in rare coins ?

In collecting information, a common theme keeps reoccurring, the abject and wholesale corruption of the Voinovich Administration.So lets go back in time together and see if we can see the genesis of the scandal we have today. 

The Voinovich Administration was mired in scandal and pay for play, with a web of lobbyists, aides and even his brother.

This Article gives a flavor for what was common
www.ohiocitizen.org :

Political birds of a feather flock together, especially when the state has lined a nest with $2 billion worth of school-construction contracts.

Aides to former Gov. George V. Voinovich have spread their wings as lobbyists, using their friendship with the outgoing head of the Ohio School Facilities Commission to help clients land a share of the $2 million a day that Ohio is spending to build and renovate schools.

A perusal of Randall A. Fischer's office-appointment calendar, obtained through a Dispatch public-records request, shows that the executive director met frequently with former colleagues from the Voinovich administration who are now lobbyists.

In fact, eight former Voinovich aides met with Fischer 48 times since 1999. That's more meetings than he had with all other companies' lobbyists combined, according to the calendar.

The businesses represented by the ex-Voinovich staff members received more than $25 million in contracts -- most of them unbid and approved at the time solely by Fischer.

Coingate "Hedge Fund" Primer

For a good explanation of how it was possible for MDL to lose almost a quarter of a billion dollars of our money, Hypothetically Speaking tries to explain in laymans terms.

If I understand the gist of it correctly, MDL was basically borrowing money to buy bonds, and using those bonds as collateral to buy more bonds and using those bonds as collateral....you get the picture, but there is more...so go read and then come back and explain it to us again !

Cover Up Part#2

We mentioned this earlier today, but it deserves mentioning again.

At an earlier Statehouse news conference, Senate Minority Leader C.J. Prentiss accused Republican leadership of conducting a "cover-up all the way up and all the way down."

Prentiss - and other Democrats at a morning news conference in Cleveland - renewed calls for equal representation on a House-Senate committee that will examine the bureau's investments.

Democrats say they will not participate on a committee unless they get equal representation. They have proposed a 16-member panel that would report its findings June 30.

But Senate President Bill Harris won't budge from his initial proposal of a committee of four Republicans and two Democratic representatives.

Harris, a Republican, said that if Democrats don't appoint members, he will appoint them, and if they fail to show, they will be marked absent.

"We are in the majority and we are responsible for whatever we do," Harris said.

Couldn't agree more that the majority are responsible for what they do, and have done, which is why they cannot be trusted to lead this investigation. As we have reported since this story broke, the GOP have systematically tried to play down, obfuscate and cover up this massive and growing scandal. Any investigation led by them would be a mockery, and Ohio is already embarrassed enough.

Bush Ducks Coingate

From the School of "If you ignore it, it might go away".

COLUMBUS - President Bush yesterday traveled to Ohio to talk about terrorism, but he arrived in the midst of the biggest statewide scandal in years and to a crowd of angry "Coingate" protesters.

Mr. Bush's motorcade sped by as dozens of protesters held signs proclaiming their frustration over the unfolding scandal at the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation.

Some examples of the signs:

"Mr. President, Give back all of my money," "What ethics?" "$50 million for how many favors?'' and "Noe raised over $100,000 and you're only returning $4,000? Sounds like fuzzy math to me."

It isn't going away, and check out the link for photo's too. Pro-Active Citizens in action !
State Dems are relentlessly pursuing this issue.

Despite the GOP trying to stack the investigation at the statehouse with republicans, the Dems are havnig none of it and are refusing to take part unless the investigation panel is balanced.

Republicans have proposed a committee dominated by members of their party.

"It's just hogwash," Rep. Chris Redfern of Catawba Island, the House Democratic leader, said in Cleveland. Members of his party, he said, won't participate in a committee that does not include equal numbers of Democrats and Republicans. "Democrats won't participate in a cover-up."

Now why would the Republican party want to stack this committee ? No prizes for correct answers !

Coin Gate Protest Pics

Pics from the Bush coingate protest Rally (click the pics for full size).

A group of fifty demonstrators representing all segments of the Democratic Party participated in a protest event to counter President Bush's speech in Columbus on Thursday morning. 

The protest participants split into two groups lining the street in order to make an impact on the president's motorcade.  Armed with dozens of signs condemning the hundreds of millions of dollars that have been lost due to risky investment schemes and the 'pay-to-play' political system that has developed in Columbus under the watch of Bob Taft, Jim Petro, Betty Montgomery and Ken Blackwell, the demonstrators made a strong show of Democratic force.

Local news media gave good coverage to the sign-waving, slogan-crowd.  WSYX Channel 6 prominently featured the demonstration on their 12PM, 5PM and 6PM news programs.

Governor Admits There May Be More To Come

In the on-going saga of political corruption in the dirtiest state of the union, today reveals that there is going to be more pay for play and dodgey dealin's and this is coming from no other than the Governor himself.

toledoblade.com :

"Clearly there was something very wrong with the investment management at the Bureau of Workers' Compensation," the governor said at a news conference at the bureau's office. "I don't think we know yet everything that went wrong with respect to that part of the bureau."

Mr. Taft also said not everything is known yet about problems with the bureau's investments and he couldn't guarantee more issues wouldn't come to light.

"We keep being surprised by investments," the governor said. While he wasn't aware of additional problems, "that doesn't mean there won't be new problems that arise," he said.

Mr. Taft also said he couldn't explain why his top business aide, Jim Samuel, didn't inform him about an October e-mail that detailed the $215 million loss.

Taft wasn't aware huh ? Can't understand why no one told him ? uh-huh.

What he really keeps getting surprised by is the fact that all their little scams are having light shone on them for the first time in years, and its going to take them all down.

So on to the new...

www.cleveland.com :

Some of MDL Capital Management's state investment deals were brokered by a politically generous Westlake bond firm with ties to another state investment scandal.

Great Lakes Capital Partners is the new incarnation of US Discount Brokerage, a firm that handled lucrative long-term trades totaling $860 million for former Treasurer Joe Deters' office from July 2000 to April 2002.

Former Cleveland police sergeant turned stockbroker Patrick White formerly worked for US Discount and is president and chief executive of Great Lakes.

White's brother, Billy, also a former police officer, once worked as Deters' driver.

White, former president of the state police and fire pension fund, has given $24,300 to Ohio political campaigns since 1997. He, his wife, Mary, and employees of Great Lakes have given more than $42,000 to state cam paigns since the company was formed in 2002 - including money to Deters, Auditor Betty Montgomery, former House Speaker Larry Householder and State Reps. Jim Trakas and Tom Patton, all Republicans.

MDL selected Great Lakes from a list of preferred brokers at the state treasury that was the subject of a grand jury investigation in Cleveland involving rogue broker Frank Gruttadauria.

Familiar names keep cropping up like bad pennies (pun intended). And in the tidbits section we have:

www.cleveland.com :

Boxes of records: Bill Wilkinson, attorney for Toledo coin dealer Tom Noe, turned over 82 boxes of records from Noe's coin shop to Inspector General Tom Charles and the State Highway Patrol. More records may be coming from coin shops out of state, Wilkinson said.

Campaign contributions: Five of the seven Ohio Supreme Court justices,who got more than $23,000 in contributions from the Noe family, will send the money to a special fund. Chief Justice Thomas Moyer and Justices Evelyn Lundberg Stratton, Maureen O'Connor, Terrence O'Donnell and Judith Ann Lanzinger, all Republicans, have recused themselves from three cases regarding release of coin fund inventories.

Coins, collectibles in storage: Examiners have separated the thousands of coins from thousands of collectible items, like baseball cards, autographs and Beanie Babies, and the inventories are being held in vaults, said State Auditor Betty Montgomery. A special audit began last week examining each transaction. Sotheby's is evaluating items purchased by the coin funds.

Ex-George H.W. Bush aide was once key player in firm tied to Ohio scandal

www.pnionline.com :

Well-known Philadelphia conservative pundit Joe Watkins -- a former aide to ex-President George H.W. Bush as well as Dan Quayle -- was managing director in the 1990s and early 2000s of the firm now wrapped up in a fast-growing GOP political scandal.

Watkins, a frequent guest on CNN and other cable networks, was a managing director and principal of MDL Capital Management when it first started doing business with Ohio in 1998. But he reportedly left shortly before 2003, when Ohio officials teamed up with MDL on a new hedge fund investment that lost a whopping $225 million in workers' compensation funds.

The massive hedge fund loss is the newest tentacle of the scandal that's become known as "Coingate," because the workers' fund may be missing $10-12 million in assets in an investment with a rare coin dealer.

The dealer, Tom Noe, also is a key GOP figure and major fundraiser for President Bush in Ohio, the state that narrowly gave him the final 20 electoral votes for his narrow re-election. Watkins was the managing director and a principal of MDL Capital after 1995 -- when it bought another investment firm that the Philadelphian was working for -- and left some time prior to March 2003, based on news accounts. In 1998, Ohio's worker compensation fund invested $355 million in a long-bond fund with MDL Capital.

Why The Cover Up Worked

From the Blade

Gov. Bob Taft’s office learned seven months ago — not this week — that the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation had lost $225 million in a high-risk investment.

In an Oct. 26, 2004, e-mail to Taft aide James Samuel, the bureau’s administrator-CEO, James Conrad, wrote that the “entire value” of the portfolio managed by MDL Capital Management was down about $225 million.

Mr. Conrad also alerted the governor’s office that the bureau had rejected MDL’s request for another $25 million and the firm was in danger of collapsing, which he said would be “likely to make national news.”

October 26th, 2004. That's when the scandal was known about. A week later George Bush is elected President by just 100,000 votes in Ohio. Would the result have beend different if this scandal had broken then, instead of being covered up until now ?

We will let you decide.

[update] Looks like Rep Marcy Kaptur has already decided.

Miss Kaptur, during a statement on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday night, said "there is a major political scandal that is unfolding in the state of Ohio."

"The governor of our state has permitted millions and millions of dollars of workers' money from the Ohio Worker's Compensation Fund to be invested in high-risk investments," Miss Kaptur said in a statement that was placed on the congressional record.
...
Democrats such as Miss Kaptur and U.S. Rep. Sherrod Brown of Lorain say the latest scandals mirror problems in Washington and even call into question the results of the 2004 presidential election.

"Shame on the governor of Ohio," said Miss Kaptur, who put The Blade's Tuesday online story breaking the news of the $215 million loss into the Congressional record. "Shame on the state officials of the State of Ohio. What a tragedy they have perpetrated on the people of our state."

Mr. Brown said state government leaders have been "inept" and "incompetent" for a decade and the "depth of corruption in Ohio might set national records."

Mr. Brown called out Governor Taft, as well as GOP gubernatorial candidates Attorney General Jim Petro, State Auditor Betty Montgomery, and Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell.

"The governor's cronies have been losing money, and the attorney general, the auditor, and the secretary of state seem to hear no evil and see no evil," he said.

In this case, it appears "the people who are supposed to be the watchdog of state's government have all contributed to the corruption."

Mr. Brown, a former Ohio secretary of state, said the situation in Ohio mirrors problems in Washington.

"I've watched up close the arrogance of [Republican House Majority Leader] Tom DeLay," he said, "and I see the way Taft, and Blackwell, and Petro … and those folks run the state government."

Cover Up

It's the cover up that always gets you.

Workers' comp bureau concealed $215M loss; Taft, Petro knew about fund's woes many months ago

COLUMBUS — Democrats were screaming “cover-up” yesterday after state officials admitted that a high-risk hedge fund that the embattled Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation had invested in had lost $215 million in just a few months last year.
...
Although the bureau has known about the losses since September, it wasn’t revealed until yesterday, a day after The Blade began making calls upon learning that state investigators had uncovered huge losses at the bureau.

A spokeman for Gov. Bob Taft said last night that Mr. Taft had been told in September that there was an investment loss at the bureau
...
Bureau records show that Attorney General Jim Petro’s office also was informed of the investment loss in September.
...
Spokesmen said Mr. Taft and Mr. Petro did not learn the full extent of the loss until yesterday.

Either they are lying or incompetant, neither are traits our Governor, or Governor hopeful should posses.

State Rep. Chris Redfern (D., Catawba Island) was among legislators who were shocked by the news.

“It begs the question, ‘Where was the oversight?’ It looks to me that the Bureau of Workers’ Compensation needs to hire an independent forensic auditor within the department itself. There seems to be no one in charge.

“Somebody tried to cover this up,’’ said Mr. Redfern. “The bu-
reau, by its own admission, fired its chief financial officer and never told us why.’’

Excellent reporting again by the Blade, read their whole article - then imagine these people responsible for Social Security Private Accounts.

Ouch !

Joe Hallet of the Dispatch

“This scandal, in a way that is easily understandable for ordinary Ohioans, dramatically exposes the pay-to-play cancer that politicians have inflicted on state government for three successive gubernatorial administrations and their attendant legislatures, earning Ohio a reputation as one of the politically dirtiest states in the nation. The story line has gotten tired: big money contributor gets state contracts and coveted appointments; taxpayers get screwed.”

Pretty much the simplest summary written to date.

Wow Ohio BWC Scandal Just Got HUGE

The Blade is reporting

BWC lost $215 million in high-risk fund

MIKE WILKINSON and JAMES DREW
BLADE STAFF WRITERS

COLUMBUS - The Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation admitted today that it lost $215 million in a high-risk fund that few people knew about.

The bureau had invested $355 million with a Pittsburgh investment firm, MDL Capital Management, beginning in 1998.

But last year, after diverting $225 million into a fund that works like a hedge fund, the fund lost $215 million. Although the bureau has known about the loss since last year, Gov. Bob Taft was notified about it today.

“There are investigations going on, including the [Ohio] Inspector General,” bureau spokesman Jeremy Jackson told The Blade.

The news came to light as a handful of agencies are looking into the bureau and its dealings with Toledo-area coin dealer Tom Noe. The Ohio Ethics Commission on Monday said it was looking into other investments held by the bureau, the agency charged with providing assistance to injured workers.

At the center of the MDL deal were Terry Gasper, the former chief financial officer for the bureau, and Jim McLean, the chief investment officer. In a memo to the governor, Tina Kielmeyer, acting bureau administrator, said Mr. Gasper did not notify former bureau Administrator James Conrad about the investment.

In the wake of the growing Noe scandal, Mr. Conrad resigned two weeks ago and left the agency on Friday. Mr. McLean was put on paid administrative leave today pending a management review of the situation.

The bureau last year asked the Ohio Attorney General to appoint special counsel in the case and ordered Mr. Gasper to either resign or be fired. He resigned Oct. 6, 2004.

Is there anyone in our State government who can be trusted with our money ? This is getting completely out of hand !

Protest Bush and Coingate

A Coingate Protest is being organized for President Bush's visit to Ohio this Thursday !

President Bush is coming to town - and refusing to give back all of Tom Noe's dirty campaign money!
Help tell Ohioans that the days of 'pay-to-play' politics are over!

 

When:  Thursday, June 9th  9AM-11AM

Where:  740 East 17th Avenue across from the Ohio Expo Center (if this location is blocked due to securtiy, please go to the secondary location:  The McDonald's at the corner of Clara Ave and E. 17th Ave) - Columbus

 

WHY:  A counter event (protest) to President Bush's visit.

There will be lots of pre-made signs to wave at the site

Sounds like a hoot !

The Newark Advocate Slams Taft

Coin scandal tarnishes Taft years

...

The governor insists he's not aware of anyone on his staff now or in the past who's violated the law. But we're sure he'll understand if Ohioans will wait until the various investigations wrap up before they come to the same conclusion.

The missing millions concern us greatly and demand an overhaul in how Ohio manages its assets. But the possibility of former or current government officials using their connections for personal financial gain raises even larger questions.

We believe citizens should demand government officials who look out for the best interests of the state's citizens at all times. It's becoming increasingly clear that's not always been the case in the Taft Administration.

And the Blade had a few articles showing just how unconcerned Betty Montomery, Jim Petro and Ken Blackwell were about it all too. All vying to be our next GOP governor. Would anything change under the leadership of these people ? We have our doubts.

The Net Widens

The Dispatch has the details

“The Ohio Ethics Commission and other authorities are investigating a dozen or more current or former public officials or employees in connection with coin dealer Thomas W. Noe, The Dispatch has learned.”

“The number of targets is larger than previously reported in the unfolding scandal involving a controversial state investment with Noe.”

Various news sources have reported questionable dealings between Noe and former members of Gov. Bob Taft’s staff and others, including:

• Brian K. Hicks, the governor’s former chief of staff, rented Noe’s $1.8 million Florida waterfront home in 2001 and 2002, paying $300 and $500 a week — rates said to be far below the market price. He did not report the matter on his ethics statements.

• H. Douglas Talbott, Taft’s former head of boards and commissions and now a Columbus consultant, accepted a $39,000 no-interest loan from Noe in 2000 so he could buy a $213,000 vacation home in Lakeside, Ohio. The loan was unreported.

• Doug Moorman, a former Taft executive assistant, accepted a $5,000 personal loan from Noe in 2004 after he went to work for the Greater Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce.

The dispatch also had this story, the Noe Dinner Club.

“They jokingly called it the Noe Supper Club.”

“Beverly Martin, Taft’s deputy chief of staff, was a frequent guest, as were H. Douglas Talbott, Taft’s head of boards and commissions; Doug Moorman, an executive assistant; and Cherie N. Carroll, executive secretary for Brian K. Hicks, the governor’s chief of staff.”

“Sometimes others would join the party, including on at least one occasion Orest Holubec, Taft’s press aide who formerly ran the boards and commission office, which handles gubernatorial appointments.”

“The founder of the feast was Thomas W. Noe, coin dealer, major GOP political fundraiser, and manager of a $50 million investment deal with the Bureau of Workers’ Compensation.”

“When the nights at Morton’s were over, Noe almost always picked up the check, sometimes running several hundred dollars, said sources familiar with the gatherings who would talk only on condition of anonymity.”

“Noe was no stranger to Taft’s staff. In addition to the social outings he organized, he was a frequent visitor to the governor’s office on the 30 th floor of the Riffe Center, 77 S. High St.”

 

Put a Fork in Jim Petro

Petros chances of becoming our next governor just took a nose dive.

COLUMBUS - Attorney General Jim Petro acknowledged yesterday that Bernadette Noe, a lawyer and wife of embattled coin dealer Tom Noe, "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.

"Tom never brought it up. I don't doubt that Bernadette may have," Mr. Petro said.
...

In 2003, Mr. Petro appointed Tracy Kidd, who like Ms. Noe was a part-time lawyer at the Toledo law firm Wise & Dorner, as special counsel to conduct debt collection. The appointment meant that Ms. Kidd, and potentially Ms. Noe, would receive as much as one-third of the $245,000 collected during her tenure as special counsel for the state.

The standard fee for special counsel is one-third of the first $30,000 of each claim collected, and an additional 10 percent for additional collections.

In Ms. Kidd's application for the appointment, she listed Ms. Noe as a colleague who would be "handling work" received from the attorney general's office of collections enforcement.
...
Ms. Kidd is the former wife of Joe Kidd, the former director of the Lucas County board of elections. He, along with several others, has testified before a federal grand jury investigating whether Mr. Noe funneled campaign contributions to the Bush-Cheney campaign through others.

That last paragraph is very interesting. Bernadette Noe called investigators in on Joe Kidd at the Lucas county Board of elections. Investigators found nothing, but then turned around and started investigating Noe. Why  would Bernadette Noe rat out the husband of a women she worked with and was getting kick back contracts with ?

Something is fishy here.

Noe And Rove

A snippet from the Blade

During the campaign, Mr. Noe had frequent contact with Karl Rove, the architect of Mr. Bush’s re-election bid. Mr. Bush numerous times during the campaign visited Ohio, which turned out to be the pivotal state on Election Day.

Wonder what they discussed?

Mr. Noe, who led the Bush-Cheney campaign in northwest Ohio, gained elite status as a Bush “pioneer” because he helped the re-election effort raise between $100,000 and $250,000.

Noe's wife was also on the Board of elections in Lucas County, which had severe election day problems. she subsequently resigned.

Noe also intervened in some election court cases on behalf of Blackwell. He also claimed on some of his campaign contribution filings to be a lawyer, when indeed he is not.

Tiberi and the Governator

In the mad rush to return money from the Noe Scandal, our very own Congressman, Pat Tiberi finally relents.

Noe also gave thousands of dollars to state and federal candidates in Ohio, many of whom are rushing to return the money. U.S. Rep. Patrick Tiberi was the latest, saying Friday he would give $4,000 he received from Noe in 1999 and 2000 to charity.

However

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger won't return $10,000 in contributions he received from a coin dealer at the center of an Ohio investment scandal, a spokesman said Friday.

Coin dealer Thomas Noe gave the money last year to a Schwarzenegger fund that supports the Republican governor's legislative priorities, such as limiting state borrowing to balance the budget.

Funny, because he campaigned on taking down the special interests in California.

Pay to Play - Been Here Before

Last year, this was reported

CLEVELAND - A criminal charge has linked a Republican lobbyist to rogue stockbroker Frank Gruttadauria, who told authorities he used a bribe to secure state business.

Andrew Futey pleaded guilty and was convicted of misdemeanor complicity in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court Friday. The charge contends

Matthew Borges, former chief of staff for state Treasurer Joseph Deters, placed Gruttadauria on a list of preferred brokers with Futey's.

Judge Richard McMonagle will sentence Futey Aug. 30.

Special Prosecutor Thomas Sammon said Gruttadauria paid Futey, 38, of suburban North Royalton, $110,000. In a plea agreement, Futey, a former assistant to Sen. George Voinovich when he was governor, will forfeit $25,000 to the county.

Mark Stanton, one of Futey's lawyers, declined to comment.

Borges, 32, of Columbus, was convicted Tuesday of misuse of a public office from March 1999 to March 2001, after pleading guilty to giving preferential treatment, including lucrative trades, to some brokers.

Deters' fund-raiser, Eric Sagun, 35, of Columbus, was convicted of an election-law violation for soliciting a contribution from Gruttadauria in December 2001 that both knew was intended for Deters' campaign. The $50,000 donation was funneled to the private operating account of the Hamilton County Republican Party.

"It was a triangle," Sammon said. "Futey introduced Gruttadauria to Sagun and Borges, and it ended in a pay-to-play operation."

So who is Andrew Futey ?

Well after he was an Aide, he got some plumb assignments.

Andrew J. Futey, from Parma, was reappointed to the State Lottery Commission for a term ending Aug. 1, 2004. Mr. Futey is president of Andrew J. Futey & Associates. He received his B.A. degree from George Washington University.

And this one

Diplomatic & Honorary Consul Corps representatives
stationed in Ohio
Ukraine
Honorary Consul
Mr. Andrew Futey

And to bring it all full circle we have this

GOVERNOR ANNOUNCES BOARD OF REGENTS APPOINTMENT

COLUMBUS -- Governor George V. Voinovich today announced an appointment to the Ohio Board of Regents.

Thomas W. Noe, a Republican from Waterville, was appointed to the Ohio Board of Regents, for a term ending September 20, 1999. He replaces William F. Boyle, a Democrat from Toledo, who resigned.

The Ohio Board of Regents advises and assists the Governor, the General Assembly, the State Universities, and other state agencies on higher education matters, in particular on matters of long range financing and development of the state's higher education facilities. Members are reimbursed for expenses only.

Mr. Noe is currently president of Vintage Coins & Cards in Maumee, Ohio. He is serving in his fifth year as a member of the Board of Trustees of Bowling Green State University and is a former member and past chairman of the Board of Trustees of Lourdes College and a former member of the Board of Regents of The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.

Mr. Noe is also a member of the Bishops Education Council for the Diocese of Toledo, the Board of Directors of Capital Bank, N.A., the Toledo and Maumee Chambers of Commerce, and the American Numismatic Association.

For more information, contact Andrew J. Futey at (614)644-0860.

It is very clear there is an ongoing problem of almost incestuous relationships between the Ohio government and lobbyists, who were once former aides. This in turn is leading to significant levels of pay to play corruption in our state. The Tom Noe Scandal is only the latest in a serious of scandals.

More Coingate "Loans"

The plain dealer investigates so we don't have to.

In a separate investigation, the Ohio Ethics Commission is looking into a personal loan that Talbott received from Noe in 2002 to buy a home in Lakeside, near Port Clinton.

He is not the only former state employee who once advised Noe on his state duties, then benefited from Noe's largess.

Doug Moorman, a former executive assistant to Taft, told The Plain Dealer that he accepted a $5,000 loan from Noe.

The payment occurred in August 2004 - about 13 months after Moorman left the state payroll to join the Greater Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce, he said.

Terms of the loan are not in writing, Moorman said. In fact, the only term appears to a promise of repayment.

Easy to be generous when it isn't your money.

 

Gotcha!

The Plain Dealer has the money quote.

H. Douglas Talbott, a former top aide to two Ohio governors, told federal authorities that Republican coin dealer Tom Noe persuaded him to contribute $2,000 to President Bush's re-election campaign - then reimbursed him for the donation, The Plain Dealer has learned.

Talbott appeared Wednesday before a federal grand jury in Toledo that is investigating whether Noe illegally reimbursed as many as two dozen contributors to a Bush fund-raiser in October 2003. The grand jury is looking into whether Noe made the reimbursements to circumvent campaign finance laws, which limit individual contributions to $2,000.

We said earlier today that people would start talking, and Talbot was the obvious one, it's just a matter of time before everyone gets ratted out. It would be wise for anyone involved in this scandal to come clean on their own volition.

In other news

President Bush will return $4,000 in campaign contributions donated by Toledo area coin dealer Tom Noe and his wife, officials said yesterday.

A spokesman said the Republican National Committee will also return $2,000 contributed by Mr. Noe, who is facing multiple investigations for allegedly misappropriating at least $10 million in state money and possible federal campaign finance violations. The money will be refunded to charity.

The Bush campaign needs to return a whole lot more than $4,000. That October 2003 Noe fundraiser raised over a million dollars.

Cincy Enquirer Chimes In

When the right leaning Enquirer chimes in, it can only be bad news for those invovled in this growing scandal.

Ohio's "Coingate" scandal isn't just about the disappearance of up to $12 million in rare coins a state agency invested in, or even about the fact that the agency had no business investing public money in collectibles in the first place. It's also about an apparent culture of influence peddling and abuse of power in state government.
...

It all leaves an ugly perception - which may well be backed by reality - that Ohio state government runs on a "pay-to-play" basis, that political contributions buy state business. This is unacceptable. Ohio voters and taxpayers deserve far better.

Democrats are proposing a list of reforms, many of which they've advocated for years to no avail. They want stricter rules and greater oversight over the state's investments. And they've called for a wholesale review of the state's campaign finance laws, which they say have been "reformed" to help reward contributors. It's time they were taken seriously. Let's stop mixing state business with political donations.

Ron Hood, Dave Evans - earn some capital and join with your Democratic colleagues to enact these badly needed reforms.

Search Warrant

We have found a copy of the search warrant issued on Tom Noe.

It details the evidence against him, what they were looking for, and what they took away.
Take a look.

Lots of coins, collectibles, computer equipment and files and records.

Illegal to Return Stolen Money ?

In an article regarding the dilema of the Lucas County GOP returning the Noe contributions, there is this choice quote.

County Auditor Larry Kaczala said his final campaign report showed his account had a balance of about $1. "In my mind the accounts have been closed [since] last January." He claimed it would be illegal to use personal funds to repay the donations. Mr. Kaczala said Mr. Noe and his wife, Bernadette, each gave $2,000 to his campaign.

Feel free to give a donation to the Bureau of Workers Compensation then.

Turning on their Own

The high ranking aide, and current lobbyist Doug Talbot appears to be in the center of a circular firing squad.

COLUMBUS -The Ohio Ethics Commission is investigating whether a former high-ranking aide to Republican Gov. Bob Taft violated state ethics laws by accepting $39,000 from Tom Noe.

A major question in that probe is whether Mr. Noe, a Toledo-area rare-coin dealer and prominent Republican, used state funds or his own money for the payment to H. Douglas Talbott, the ethics agency said.

Mr. Talbott, also a former aide to Gov. George Voinovich, served as director of boards and commissions for Mr. Taft from 1999 until May, 2000, when he left to become a lobbyist.

Mr. Talbott said he accepted $39,000 as a "loan" from Mr. Noe in September, 2002, to help buy a house in Lakeside, Ohio, for $213,000.

When he worked for Mr. Taft, Mr. Talbott consulted with Mr. Noe about appointments to state boards and commissions and stayed in touch with him after leaving the governor's office.
...
Mr. Taft said: "It certainly doesn't look good on the surface, but it is a matter pending before the Ethics Commission, and it would be inappropriate to say anything more until the commission makes a ruling."

Might have been appropriate to say something when he worked for you though governor.

When Mr. Talbott was director of boards and commissions for Mr. Taft, Mr. Noe was reappointed to the Ohio Board of Regents and the state's commemorative quarter committee.

In July, 2003, Mr. Taft appointed Mr. Talbott to the state Board of Cosmetology, which required Mr. Talbott to file an annual financial disclosure statement.

The Ethics Commission investigation will determine whether Mr. Talbott should have disclosed the $39,000 as a gift or if he should have listed Mr. Noe as a creditor on his ethics forms covering 2003 and 2004. It is a first-degree misdemeanor to falsify an ethics form, with a maximum penalty of six months in jail and/or a $1,000 fine.

Mr. Talbott, 41, has denied any wrongdoing and said he will return the ethics form covering 2004 that he didn't fill out completely and list Mr. Noe as a creditor.

David Freel, executive director of the Ethics Commission, said there is no provision in state law for an "amended" ethics form. Public officials can provide an "addendum," which triggers an examination whether the person inadvertently failed to disclose information or there was a "knowing falsification," Mr. Freel said.

More jobs for the boys ! It is hard to recall getting a $39,000 "loan for a house though.

State Sen. Jeff Jacobson, a Republican from suburban Dayton, said officials must fill out their ethics forms "correctly.''

"The big issue is, 'Is it unusual to get the loan from somebody you worked with previously?' Certainly, it is not something I've heard of before, and it is the kind of situation that, while not illegal, is something that should be avoided as the appearance of impropriety."
...
Neil Clark, a former GOP Senate staffer and now among the most powerful Statehouse lobbyists, said Mr. Talbott's decision to accept $39,000 from Mr. Noe was "poor judgment.''

"I hope this isn't indicative of a culture that has been occurring," he said.

It sure looks indicative.

Sen. Teresa Fedor (D., Toledo) said The Blade's story about Mr. Talbott showed that the rare-coin investment scandal is expanding into the upper circles of the GOP-controlled state government.

"They cooked up their own deals, their own schemes, and anyone who supports this or went along with this pay-to-play scheme needs to be held accountable," she said.

Accountable. That is the key. Make them all accountable. If they have acted illegally or unethically they should step forward immediately and save the state further embarrassment. The truth is already coming out, and judging by the way the circular firing squad is lining up, people are going to want to start making deals - and naming names.

Mr Talbot may also have some mortgage fraud issues too

Mr. Talbott said he wasn't required to disclose the $39,000 from Mr. Noe to his lender, Fifth Third Bank, because the money was used as a down payment.

Mr. Talbott said Mr. Noe either wrote the $39,000 check directly to the seller of the Lakeside home, Columbus real estate executive Larry Schottenstein, or Mr. Talbott signed it over to Mr. Schottenstein.

A section of the mortgage filed in Ottawa County states: "Borrower shall be in default if, during the Loan Application process, Borrower or any other persons or entities acting at the direction of Borrower or with Borrower's knowledge or consent gave materially false, misleading, or inaccurate information or statements to Lender."

Betty Needs Ethics Training

Sign her up !

COLUMBUS - Ohio Auditor Betty Montgomery rented the Lakeside, Ohio, vacation home that a former high-ranking aide to Gov. Bob Taft bought with Tom Noe's help.

But two aides to Ms. Montgomery said she didn't know about the $39,000 payment from Mr. Noe to lobbyist H. Douglas Talbott - and that Mr. Noe played no role in setting up the rental in August, 2003.

The Blade reported yesterday that Mr. Talbott said he accepted $39,000 as a "loan" from Mr. Noe in September, 2002, to help buy a house in Lakeside for $213,000.

Ms. Montgomery, a former Wood County prosecutor who served two terms as attorney general before winning the auditor's race in 2002, didn't disclose the stay at Mr. Talbott's Lakeside house on her annual ethics statement because it was not a gift, said Jen Detwiler, a spokesman for Ms. Montgomery.

Ms. Montgomery provided The Blade last night with a copy of a check she wrote to Mr. Talbott for $750 and a hand-written note that she and her family arrived Monday night and left Sunday morning - five days and six nights. She also enclosed a flyer about Mr. Talbott's vacation home, which said it rented for $1,000 a week.

Ms. Montgomery contacted Mr. Talbott about renting his home after her family made late vacation plans and "had a hard time finding a place to rent," Ms. Detwiler said.

You really ought to disclose any financial dealings with lobbyists, then there can be no ambiguity. In fact, it might be better to have no financial ties to lobbyist to begin with.

A who's who of GOP operatives Testify

The Blade covers the on-going grand jury investigation into illegal campaign contributions and coin-gate.

Lucas County GOP leader, ex-Taft aide give testimony
Republican chief tries to distance party from Noe

By MIKE WILKINSON
BLADE STAFF WRITER

A former high-ranking aide to Gov. Bob Taft has testified before the federal grand jury investigating presidential campaign contributions and Tom Noe, The Blade confirmed yesterday.

H. Douglas Talbott, a lobbyist and former aide to both Governor Taft and former Gov. George Voinovich, slipped quietly into the federal courthouse, unnoticed by local media.

Afterward, he would not discuss what he said to the grand jury.

"I can't disclose what I said. It's private. It's a secret proceeding," Mr. Talbott said.

Like the other witnesses who appeared Wednesday and again yesterday, Mr. Talbott contributed money to President Bush's re-election campaign. He gave $2,000. However, Mr. Talbott was the only witness to appear who was not from the Toledo area.

The Blade reported yesterday that Mr. Talbott said he accepted $39,000 from Mr. Noe so he could buy a home in Lakeside, Ohio.

Mr. Talbott said he accepted the money as a "loan" from Mr. Noe in September, 2002 - after leaving the governor's office in May, 2000, to become a lobbyist. Mr. Talbott said he has not repaid the money to Mr. Noe but plans to do so.

Really, when someone gives you 39 grand to buy a house and you don't give a penny back for years, it really is hard to call it a loan. But I might just write my mortage company, just in case !