Inspector general's office changes its final Coingate report
5/1/2014Editor's note: The report released by the Ohio inspector general's office has been revised twice. The current revision is linked to this article.
COLUMBUS — The Ohio inspector general’s office today changed its final report into the investigation into the 2005 Coingate scandal, adding, as expected, convictions that had been omitted from the prior report.
The new report also delves more deeply into the state’s efforts in court to recover the assets of Tom Noe, the former Toledo area coin dealer at the center of the investigation.
RELATED CONTENT: Click here to read the revised Noe report
The misdemeanor ethics convictions of Republican former Gov. Bob Taft and former aide J. Douglas Moormann have been added to the report. Mr. Taft’s 2005 plea on four counts of failing to report gifts, some involving Noe, now leads off the section dealing with the various ethics convictions that stemmed from the scandal.
Mr. Moormann, who failed to report a $5,000 loan received from Noe, was listed at number three.
The convictions had been apparently been omitted from the report intentionally under the mistaken belief that their records had since been expunged.
The names of three others who had also been omitted are still missing. The report still states that some convictions have been expunged, but, because of the nature of sealed records, it’s unclear whether these three convictions were specifically expunged.
The report adds specific details about a 2008 Lucas County settlement agreement allowing the sale of Noe’s Numismatic Guaranty Corporation of America stock, just over $2 million of it went to the investment in rare coins and collectibles he was convicted of stealing from. The Lucas and Franklin county prosecutor offices shared $200,000 of the proceeds from the stock sale.
“As a result of the entry for distribution of the forfeited asset, the amount of restitution owed by Tom Noe was reduced from $13,747,000 to $11,695,000,” the report reads.
The amended report also specifies that Bernadette Restivo, Noe’s ex-wife now living in Florida, had been dismissed from a lawsuit filed by the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation in attempt to recover Noe assets.
In a temporary move, the inspector general’s office had quietly deleted a reference to Ms. Restivo after erroneously saying there had been asset judgment against her in addition to her ex-husband.
The changes added little to the length of the report.
Contact Jim Provance at: jprovance@theblade.com or 614-221-0496.