Tom Noe's ATM machine.

[truthteller]

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061018/SRRARECOINS/310180002/-1/SRRARECOINS2

 

 

 

NOE TRIAL

Noe ex-aide tells all on his finances

Dealer treated coin funds like an 'ATM,' she testifies

 

 

By MIKE WILKINSON and STEVE EDER

BLADE STAFF WRITERS

 

 

Despite a monthly income of more than $10,000 and a net worth of nearly $8 million, Tom Noe considered the $50 million in state money he controlled an ATM; that he could use whenever he wanted, one of his former top assistants testified yesterday.

 

Sue Bahn, hired by Noe to catalog collectibles at his former Monclova Township coin shop, said Noe made the statement to her in 2005 after she asked him about the tough questions being raised in the media about him and the rare-coin funds he managed for the state.

 

He described it as having access to an ATM; said Ms. Bahn, who changed her name from Metzger back to her maiden name earlier this year. He said when he needed it, he would tap immediately into the coin fund.

 

Prosecutors allege that Noe embezzled more than $2.2 million from the two rare-coin funds he managed for the Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation. They say he used the money to pay off prior personal debt and to pay for and remodel his waterfront homes in Maumee, Catawba Island, and the Florida Keys.

 

He faces 44 felony counts and is free on $500,000 bond. The former GOP power broker has pleaded not guilty.

 

 

David Tripp, a self-employed coin appraiser, tells the jury he was stunned at the dearth of coins at Tom Noe's shop.

Ms. Bahn, who also managed Noe's personal checkbook, said she started having concerns about Noe's business in the months before The Blade first revealed problems with the coin funds in April, 2005.

 

Large checks were being written by Noe for the homes in late 2004 and the amounts far exceeded Noe's income from his coin shop, which Ms. Bahn estimated at more than $10,000 a month after taxes.

 

To cover the shortfall, Ms. Bahn said Noe would make deposits that she never saw. Whatever was needed, he'd make a deposit to cover it, she said.

 

After she was hired full-time in July, 2003, Ms. Bahn said she was asked to handle the Noes personal checking account. It was in such shambles that she couldn't balance it until old bank statements were ordered.

 

Ms. Bahn's comments were the most interesting yet in a trial that is expected to last from four to six weeks. She told defense attorney John Mitchell that Noe made the ATM comment after she asked him if he took the money and if Bernadette [Tom Noe's wife] knew.

 

Despite several conversations with investigators since November, Ms. Bahn didn't tell them about the ATM comment until earlier this year. Mr. Mitchell asked her why.

I thought he was going to tell the truth and make it right, she said.

 

Ms. Bahn, who said she once typed up a financial report listing Noe's net worth at nearly $8 million, testified that Tom Noe indicated he had a plan to cover-up the problems. But he allegedly told her that something she said caused him to change his mind.

 

He decided not to use his friends to bail him out but decided to take the bull by the horns and face it, she said.

 

In later testimony yesterday, Ms. Bahn revealed that she told Noe that God had a plan and a purpose for everything.

 

I said God is after his heart. He may lose everything, but he'll get it back, she said.

 

Noe's biggest concern was not himself, Ms. Bahn said, but his family. He described how he could lose everything and it wouldn't bother him,she said.

 

For the first time yesterday, jurors saw some of the coins that Noe had in the Monclova Township store. They were brought into court in a locked metal locker guarded by an Ohio Highway Patrol officer.

 

But most of the talk centered not on coins but on collectibles. After Workers' Compensation investigators tried to gain access to Noe's Monclova Township coin shop in late May, 2005, they were shown mostly collectibles, not coins, as they tried to determine whether any of the state's money was missing.

 

David Tripp, a self-employed coin appraiser who works for Sotheby's, the New York-based auction house, said he was hired by the state to appraise Noe's coins.

 

When he arrived at the coin shop, however, he was shown boxes of historical memorabilia, including 18th-century documents signed by Presidents Washington and Jefferson.

 

His reaction to the dearth of coins: Stunned. We hadn't expected to see anything but coins,he said.

 

Defense attorney Bill Wilkinson, during his opening statements Monday, said Noe had begun buying millions of dollars worth of collectibles in the 18 months before Mr. Tripp was inside Vintage Coin. He said Noe's contract with the state allowed him to buy the items.

 

Jurors yesterday also learned that the bureau's former chief legal officer once instructed the director of investigations to teach another top official how to delete e-mails.

 

Tom Wersell, the director of investigations for the Bureau of Workers' Compensation, testified that John Annarino, the bureau's former chief legal officer, told him to show Jim McLean, former chief investment officer, how to double delete; e-mails. The request occurred in the weeks after the coin scandal erupted.

 

Mr. Wersell said he did not know why Mr. Annarino made the request but that he showed Mr. McLean how to delete the e-mails.

 

Mr. Wersell, in his second day of testimony, acknowledged that the bureau has an information technology department, which in most businesses or agencies would handle such requests.

 

The revelation came during cross-examination of Mr. Wersell by Mr. Mitchell. Mr. Wersell had testified that many of the documents relating to the Noe coin funds were retrieved from the office of Mr. McLean, who was fired by the bureau last year.

 

Nancy Smeltzer, a spokesman for the bureau, said yesterday that the agency wouldn't comment on the testimony that agency officials were destroying records at the bureau.

 

She provided a copy of the bureau's record-retention policy. Benign e-mails, like announcements of office parties, have no value and should be deleted. But general correspondenc that has significant administrative, legal and/or fiscal value, should be kept for at least a year, possibly two or longer.

We don't have any comments on this case as it is going on right now, Ms. Smeltzer said. We are like everyone else. We are waiting to see what happens.

 

A little over a month ago, Noe was sentenced to 27 months in federal prison for illegally funneling more than $45,000 into the re-election campaign of President Bush in 2003. He will report to federal prison at the conclusion of the state trial.

 

The trial resumes today and two former coin-shop employees are expected to testify, as well as Howard Hudson III, a former Ohio Highway Patrol lieutenant who worked on the case.

 

Contact Mike Wilkinson at: mwilkinson@theblade.com or 419-724-6104.

[EZ_E]

Greed, Greed, Greed!

 

[numismatica]

Thanks for posting the article. Amazing.....

[Stanley]

New definition for ATM :

 

A int

T om’s

M oney