(Ohio Coin Dealer) Noe to Face Federal Grand Jury (for Bush fund raiser)

[Robbien]

TOLEDO -- A federal grand jury will start hearing the case of Toledo-area Republican donor Tom Noe on Wednesday. Jurors will decide whether Noe should go to trial on charges he violated federal campaign finance laws during the 2004 presidential election.

At issue is a $2,000 a plate fundraiser for the Bush/Cheney campaign in October of 2003 in Columbus. Several local Republicans were at the event, including Toledo City Councilwoman Betty Shultz, County Commissioner Maggie Thurber and GOP Chairwoman Sally Perz. The grand jury will investigate if Noe bypassed federal election limits by giving money to others, and having them donate it back to the Bush campaign.

The Columbus event raised about $1.5 million dollars for the Bush/Cheney campaign. By that time, Noe had already donated the maximum $2,000 individual contribution to the Bush/Cheney campaign, so any more money traced back to him would be illegal.

The grand jury will decide whether Noe will go to trial. "Well, the whole process is to determine if there's enough evidence of a crime to indict somebody," said UT Law Professor Dan Steinbock. "The standard for the grand jury is whether there is probably cause--a fair probability--that a crime was committed and people named in the indictment committed it."

Sources tell News 11 as many as forty people could testify before the grand jury. Among them: Shultz, Thurber, and Perz. Who's not on the list? Noe himself.

http://www.wtol.com/Global/story.asp?S=3415031

[livetohike]

1. Do not pass Go! Go directly to Jail

Well this hearing shouldn't take long!

[rwork]

2. Cheney is working

quietly rounding up the judges he will need.

[phoebe]

3. Walden O'Dell +Ohio fundraiser + "deliver votes to the president"

This is worth repeating..

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0828-08.htm

Published on Thursday, August 28, 2003 by the Cleveland Plain Dealer

Voting Machine Controversy
by Julie Carr Smyth

snip

COLUMBUS - The head of a company vying to sell voting machines in Ohio told Republicans in a recent fund-raising letter that he is "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year."

The Aug. 14 letter from Walden O'Dell, chief executive of Diebold Inc. - who has become active in the re-election effort of President Bush - prompted Democrats this week to question the propriety of allowing O'Dell's company to calculate votes in the 2004 presidential election.

O'Dell attended a strategy pow-wow with wealthy Bush benefactors - known as Rangers and Pioneers - at the president's Crawford, Texas, ranch earlier this month. The next week, he penned invitations to a $1,000-a-plate fund-raiser to benefit the Ohio Republican Party's federal campaign fund - partially benefiting Bush - at his mansion in the Columbus suburb of Upper Arlington.

The letter went out the day before Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, also a Republican, was set to qualify Diebold as one of three firms eligible to sell upgraded electronic voting machines to Ohio counties in time for the 2004 election.

entire article worth a re-read..
Noe was also a Pioneer/Ranger was he not??

[bambo53]

6. Noe was a pioneer

The State of Ohio secretly gave him $50 million dollars of taxpayers money from the workers comp. fund in 1998. He apparently gave a lot of it back to the Republican party in the form of campaign contributions, he's the state's biggest donor and was the head of the Lucas County Republican party, as was his wife.

Turns out 10 to 12 million of it is missing, some for his personal use, and some for every Republican candidate.

It smells to high heaven of money laundering taxpayers dollars to fund Ohio Republican campaigns AND GW Bush.

The Toledo Blade newspaper has been covering for a month or so now. Look it up, it's good reading.

[benburch]

4. Noe is also involved in buying the voting machines...

That cheated Kerry.

[cliss]

5. Interesting.

This is one story I will be following over the next few weeks. And I'll be enjoying it immensely.

I'll particularly enjoy reading about Mr. Noe's upcoming stomach problems, as he starts eating lots of antacids, Tums; etc. As the heat starts turning up for the "coin collector", his stomach lining will get eroded from all the stress he'll be living with.

The implications in this can of worms is huge.

[bambo53]

7. I grew up with him

I always wondered how he became a millionaire out of a coin collection... it appears to be with our tax dollars.

[Robbien]

9. In another article today, appears Ohio may have invested in Beanie Babies

http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/1117618341139970.xml&coll=2&thispage=2

Investigators seized mountains of coins, baseball cards, comic books and other collectibles from Noe's Maumee shop, the documents show. Items taken included Beanie Babies, Harry Potter books, 36 George W. Bush "Rocks Glasses" and a wooden nickel, according to the 13-page inventory.

. . .

Noe was also forced to write off up to $850,000 in bad debt after Chrans failed to pay back a loan he got from the bureau's investment money. Chrans has said publicly he sold about $20 million worth of coins for Noe between 1998 and 1999. Noe orchestrated the coin deal with the workers' compensation bureau in 1998.

Chrans is a felon, having pleaded guilty to two federal offenses in 1986 for laundering drug money during a coin deal.

. . .

The Noes own a $1.8 million home in the Florida Keys and recently sold two properties on Catawba Island in Lake Erie, Ottawa County auditor's records show.

The records show that the Noes sold their Catawba vacation home for $990,000 on May 26. The sale was completed two days after Franklin County Common Pleas Judge David Cain froze the Noes' assets.

The Noes also sold a cottage on Catawba for $145,000 on May 3.

. . .

Numismatic Professionals was a company run out of Maumee and Evergreen, Colo. The business was created and capitalized with workers' compensation money and managed by Storeim. Hudson also documented three other sales in which Storeim allegedly gave "one-time customers" coins valued at $350, $540 and $500 for free.

Last year, a coin valued at $8,750 was sold to one dealer and subsequently to another business, a scenario Hudson identified as a common embezzlement scheme.

. . .

[mod mom]

8. Noe was very involved in 2004 election in Ohio. Check out this

DU link:

www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=203&topic_id=371800&mesg_id=371800

County Commisssioner Maggie thurber's husband Sam was involved in the Lucas County OH BOE Investigation along with Tom Noe's wife Bernadette.

As you know Bernadette Noe and Tom Noe both have links to the Lucas County BOE. Ms Noe was Chairperson of the Lucas County BOE during the past election. I hope you have taken the time to read the SOS's Investigation of Lucas county following the election:

http://www.sos.state.oh.us/sos/elections/lucas.htm

This report 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.
*failure to guard and protect public documents ....etc.