Noe trail leads to Voinovich associate

[Algorem]

http://www.columbusdispatch.com/news-story.php?story=dispatch/2006/12/15/20061215-A1-03.html

Wife of ex-treasurer received payments

Friday, December 15, 2006
Mark Niquette
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH


...The payments were made to an obscure company incorporated in Florida that names as the only officer Laura Panichi, wife of Vincent Panichi, Voinovich's longtime personal accountant in Cleveland, records show...

It was at Voinovich’s urging that the bureau was brought under the control of the governor’s office in 1995, and state law also was relaxed to allow alternative investments such as Noe’s rare-coin fund...

But in records from Noe’s 1993 divorce, Noe credited his political connections with helping him land Panichi and Paul Mifsud, Voinovich’s former chief of staff, as clients for his private coin business...

During Noe’s trial, prosecutors told jurors that Noe used "friends in high places" to help land the bureau investment but didn’t present any evidence about it...




Report: Wife of former Voinovich treasurer got money from Noe

http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/16246901.htm

Associated Press

COLUMBUS, Ohio - ...Noe was convicted last month on charges that he stole from a $50 million investment in rare coins that he managed for the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation. The former GOP fundraiser was sentenced to 18 years in prison and ordered to repay the state $13.7 million...

Donald Brey, an attorney for Vincent Panichi, told the newspaper that the payments were legitimate and have been explained to investigators. He said he was told the Panichis were not the targets of the investigation.

Records show DLII Inc. was incorporated in Florida in 1993, and Laura Panichi is its only officer. Corporate filings do not reveal what the business does...

A spokesman for Voinovich told the newspaper that the Republican senator knew nothing about any payments from Noe to Laura Panichi's company.

[gratuitous]

1. I dropped a carton of milk once

It was just one of those quart-size ones, kind of tall and slender, but it hit my kitchen lineoleum from about four feet up with the spout open. I cleaned up everything (so I thought) immediately, but it seemed like for weeks I was finding little spots of milk everywhere, even up on the cupboards. I have a feeling that little spots of Noe are going to keep turning up in the darnedest places.

[OzarkDem]

2. Voino and Noe are friends

Looks very suspicious.

[OhioChick]

3. It sure would be nice

if Voinovich had to pack his bags, as others have here.

[sam sarrha]

5. the wives have non-profit charities they can keep 85% of donations an funnel it into the Campaign

contributions... i would say the majority of RepugNuts wives do this...

they only have to use 15% of the money for the actual charity...SWEET.!!

[sam sarrha]

4. i think they convicted him so fast to prevent a deal revealing lots of this corruption

[mod mom]

7. There is alot more concerning his and his wife's role at the Lucas County BOE.

I for one am hoping that John Conyers subpoena's both Tom and Bernadette Noe.

[sam sarrha]

8. yea.!! and this time the rat bastards cant turn off the lights..

[mod mom]

6. Bob Fitrakis (Columbus Free Press) wrote an excellent book about Voinovich

Here is a review:

The Fitrakis Files: The Brothers Voinovich and the Ohiogate Scandal
by Martin Yant
July 14, 2004

Bob Fitrakis is at his best when he writes about George Voinovich at his worst. Catching Voinovich at his worst was not that hard when the former "frugal" Cleveland mayor and future "moderate" U.S. senator held statehouse ethics hostage as Ohio's governor in the 1990s. So it's not surprising that The Fitrakis Files: The Brothers Voinovich and the Ohiogate Scandal -- the fourth compilation of the Columbus State Community College professor, lawyer, activist, and talk-radio firebrand's writings -- is probably his best.

That's not to say the first three Fitrakis Files -- Spooks, Nukes & Nazis, The Schoolhouse Divided and Free Byrd & Other Cries of Justice are not exemplary. How could I say otherwise when I co-wrote some of the entries in the Byrd book? But The Brothers Voinovich and the Ohiogate Scandal rises above the others because the Voinovich clan and the brownshirts who did their bidding made such easy targets as they turned statehouse sleaze into an art form.

Fitrakis gets off to a good start in this compilation of his writings from Columbus Alive and The Free Press with its dedication to "the exemplary life of David Sturtz and to the memory of Joe Gilyard, two of Ohio's finest public servants." Sturtz and Gilyard have two things in common. One is that they both took a costly, principled stand against the Voinoviches' unabashed cronyism. The other thing Sturtz and Gilyard have in common is that I referred Fitrakis to them after I persuaded him to try to make his points through investigative reporting rather than political pontificating.

With help of Sturtz, Gilyard and like-minded government employees who didn't believe Columbus should be turned over to a bunch of Cleveland crooks, Fitrakis took my advice and soon was breaking story after story about the veniality of the Voinoviches. With the support and assistance of Columbus Alive publisher Sally Crane and editor Brian Lindamood, Fitrakis began by exposing the corruption of Paul Mifsud, who went from being Paul Voinovich's right-hand man at his supposed "prison construction" company, if that's what you call building jails that fall apart as fast you build them, to being the right-hand man of George Voinovich's "government destruction" operation, if that's what you call expanding government funding and directing it into the pockets of your cronies.

-snip
http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/17/2004/714

[mtnester]

9. Voinobitch is as dirty as they come

he has a history already...and if this leads to an associate, I am sure it leads indirectly to George. Say bye bye to him if the minions start to squeal, which they WILL to save their skins.

He is next on Ohio's list kids....he has a few years to find a job and he better. Hopefully, this will help us get him out earlier. If it happens soon, then there is enough time for Special Election.