toledoblade.com -- Noe sold Corvette 3 days before his assets were frozen; $35,000 paid for car won in raffle

Three days before a judge barred coin dealer Tom Noe from selling personal assets, he collected a $35,000 windfall May 24 by selling a vintage sports car won in a raffle.

As Mr. Noe’s troubles have mounted in recent months, the Republican activist has sold a boat, a car, and a pair of houses.

But his efforts to raise cash, some of them authorized by a Franklin County Common Pleas Court judge to pay for future living and legal expenses, have been met with scrutiny by investigators looking into a shortfall of up to $13 million in rare-coin investments Mr. Noe managed for the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation.

Lawyers for Attorney General Jim Petro, who obtained the order prohibiting most asset sales, said they may try to reverse transactions that took place in the weeks leading up to the May 27 court action.

State lawyers also have unsuccessfully tried to persuade Franklin County Judge David Cain in recent days to prevent additional asset sales.

Instead, the judge has ordered proceeds placed in an escrow account to which both Mr. Noe and the state are expected to lay claim.

“The attorney general argued against selling anything, but boats depreciate and it costs money to maintain” them, Judge Cain said yesterday. Because the state does not have a judgment against Mr. Noe, the state can’t seize his assets, the judge added.

Judge Cain ruled last month that any sale of Mr. Noe’s personal assets that exceeds $15,000 must be approved by the state or the court.

On Tuesday with the court’s permission, Mr. Noe and his wife, Bernadette, sold a 32-foot boat docked near their residence in the Florida Keys and a condominium on River Road in Maumee.

The four-year-old Regulator brand boat was purchased by Catawba Moorings, a boat dealer in Port Clinton, according to Ottawa County records.

Although the purchase price wasn’t disclosed, Judge Cain has stipulated that it be at least $100,000.

The condo was sold for $550,000 to Lynn and Joyce Olman. Mr. Olman is a prominent Republican who formerly served in the Ohio House of Representatives.

Judge Cain ordered the proceeds divided between Mr. and Mrs. Noe and freed her portion of the funds for use “for legal fees or reasonable and necessary living expenses such as mortgage payments, utilities, [and] groceries ...”

A lawyer representing Mrs. Noe has told the court she is “destitute,” said D. Michael Grodhaus, a top deputy to Ohio’s attorney general.
“Yet it is our understanding she is living in Florida in a $4 million house,” he said.

State opposes sales

State lawyers opposed the sales because Mr. Noe’s attorneys have refused to provide details on his personal assets and how much of the proceeds from the sales will be used to pay his legal bills, Mr. Grodhaus added.

“It’s too late for the attorney general to complain about the freeze order that allows for payment of legal fees,” countered Bill Wilkinson, an attorney for Mr. Noe.

If state lawyers persist, he warned, Mr. Noe will stop cooperating with investigators looking into the coin fund shortfall.

Meanwhile, investigators plan to take a closer look at asset sales before the court order.

“If we demonstrate the transfer of those assets was fraudulent and with a purpose to evade creditors, we may be able to undo those transactions,” Mr. Grodhaus said.

They include the May 26 sale of the Noes’ Lake Erie resort home at Catawba Island for $990,000 to a firm headed by Donald P. Miller, a Republican activist and retired chairman of rubber products producer Roppe Holdings of Fostoria.

A reporter who went to Mr. Miller’s home and office yesterday was told he was unavailable, and he did not return phone calls.

Records in Wood County show that Mr. Miller also bought a 1961 Chevrolet Corvette convertible that Mr. Noe won last July in a raffle sponsored by a Tiffin-based charity that assists abused and neglected children.

The vehicle was worth $50,000, said Judy Reiter, director of the Court Appointed Special Advocate Program of Seneca, Sandusky, and Wyandot counties.

When it was sold 10 months later, it fetched $35,000. Used car guides say such a car is worth between $25,000 and $57,000, depending on the condition.

Odds were 1 in 780

Mr. Noe won the car after buying five tickets for a total of $100, according to Ms. Reiter. The agency sold 3,900 tickets and Mr. Noe’s odds of winning were 1 in 780.

When the car was delivered, Mr. Noe wrote a $10,000 check to the agency to cover taxes he owed on the prize, Ms. Reiter said. He also bought five tickets for the upcoming 2005 drawing.

A photo on the raffle Web site shows Mr. Noe beaming from behind the steering wheel of his gleaming red and white prize.

Among other transactions that have attracted the interest of investigators are commissions that Mr. Noe took in the final days of the state’s $50 million rare-coin funds.

He appears to have sold about $200,000 in stocks shortly before the state took over the investment, said Bill Brandt, chief executive of Development Specialists, Inc., which was hired to replace Mr. Noe as fund manager.

William Bodoh, a Columbus attorney and former federal bankruptcy judge who was selected to sell coins in the funds, said he is examining whether Mr. Noe took an advance last month, shortly before his attorneys notified officials that up to $13 million in state assets were unaccounted for.

“How could he take an advance against profits in an operation that does not appear to be making a profit?” Mr. Bodoh asked.

Without confirming an amount, Mr. Noe’s attorney said there was a payment for a past-due commission.

He denied Mr. Noe took an advance, however.

State lawyers indicated they will continue to oppose asset sales.
“We are going to make certain there are some assets there to levy against when we are successful in this case,” Mr. Grodhaus said.

Blade Staff Writers Christopher D. Kirkpatrick and Steve Eder contributed to this report. Contact Gary T. Pakulski at:gpakulski@theblade.com or 419-724-6082.

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