Article published November 21, 2006
NOE GETS 18 YEARS
Judge cites 'elaborate scheme' to defraud state
Ex-coin dealer told to pay nearly $17M
Defense attorney Bill Wilkinson, left, talks to Tom Noe after his sentencing.
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THE BLADE/JEREMY WADSWORTH
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By MIKE WILKINSON and JAMES DREW
BLADE STAFF WRITERS
Tom Noe, convicted of stealing millions from a fund for Ohio’s injured workers to live a fraudulent lifestyle that included luxury homes in two states, will pass into retirement age in a prison uniform.
Judge Thomas Osowik, citing the “overwhelming evidence” against Noe, 52, sentenced him to serve 18 years in a state prison, and for the sentence to begin after he serves 27 months on an unrelated federal offense.
Noe would be 72 when released.
Judge Osowik said Noe, the former Republican fund-raiser who helped the successful campaigns of Gov. Bob Taft and President Bush, took the money from the rare-coin funds he managed for the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation “for one purpose: to present some type of facade that you had this bottomless cup of wealth and luxury at your disposal when in fact it was at the state’s expense.”
Judge Osowik said the evidence showed that Noe “cooked the books” in “an elaborate scheme” that was premeditated. He expressed surprise that Noe continued stealing even after a midlevel bureau auditor started asking tough questions about the wisdom of investing public money in rare coins.
Noe was expected to be sent to the federal detention center in Milan, Mich., this week. He will be evaluated there before assignment to a federal prison, said Steve Miller, supervisor of the U.S. marshal’s office in Toledo.
A jury of eight men and four women found Noe guilty on 29 counts last week, and he could have gotten dozens of more years in prison.
The jury found him guilty of stealing more than $1.6 million from the coin funds.
Noe was fined $213,000 by Judge Osowik and ordered to pay the cost of the prosecution, estimated at nearly $3 million, and ordered to pay restitution to the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation, estimated at $13.7 million — the total that is missing from the $50 million rare-coin funds Noe controlled.
Hearing next week
A hearing on the restitution amount will be held next week.
Judge Osowik sentenced him to 10 years on a charge of engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity. He gave him another eight years for a charge of stealing more than $1 million.
The prison terms of all the other charges — money laundering, tampering with records, and forgery — range from six months to five years and will run concurrently with Noe’s last eight years, the judge ruled.
Noe appeared in a dark blue jumpsuit, handcuffed, and with chains around his waist. He has grown a salt-and-pepper goatee since the verdict was read last week.
When he walked into the courtroom yesterday morning, he was animated, smiling and joking with his lawyers and his family.
When Judge Osowik entered the court, he turned emotionless. He remained so during the sentencing, during which he said just 10 words, including “yes, your honor” and “no, your honor.” On the advice of his attorneys, he did not make a statement.
As Noe left the courtroom, he mouthed the word “bye” to his wife, Bernadette, and his daughters and was taken away.
Prosecutors had suggested Noe’s sentence should mirror the 18 years given to a Columbus attorney who stole large sums from his clients. Judge Osowik agreed the case was similar.
Attorneys for Noe suggested a 10-year prison term to run concurrently with the federal time. His attorneys declined comment after the sentence.
Noe won’t begin serving the 18 years until he completes a 27-month federal sentence imposed in September for illegally laundering $45,000 to President Bush’s re-election campaign.
Yesterday’s sentencing in Lucas County Common Pleas Court makes official what has been suspected for the better part of a year: that Noe’s climb up the political and social ladder was aided by public money — and it was over.
Once a dapper appointee to the Ohio Board of Regents and the Ohio Turnpike Commission, Noe is now going to be known as another uniformed inmate at a yet undetermined prison.
“He got his just reward,” said juror Alice Peters, who attended the sentencing. “If you do the crime, you do the time.”
Before the judge’s sentencing, Tom Wersell, chief of the Bureau of Workers’ Compensation investigations unit, told the court that the bureau trusted Noe before the scandal and that they were fooled by him.
Noe’s wife, Bernadette, and other family members were
present for the sentencing.
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THE BLADE/DAVE ZAPOTOSKY
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‘Violated the public trust’
The resulting investigations left the bureau “synonymous with the term pay-to-play and a culture of corruption,” he said, and destroyed its reputation.
“Tom Noe violated the public trust by using $50 million as his own ATM, living a lavish lifestyle at the expense of real people whose lives depended on BWC monies,” Mr. Wersell said.
In early 2005, when The Blade first began reporting on Noe’s rare-coin funds, missing coins, and questionable management practices, state officials, including those at the bureau and Governor Taft, defended Noe as a successful investment manager and an advocate for northwest Ohio.
In fact, bureau officials were on the verge of giving him an additional $25 million to invest in rare coins until The Blade began investigating Noe.
John Mitchell, an attorney for Noe, told the judge that the former coin dealer could never commit another crime of a similar nature and asked for leniency. He also noted that there is no possibility of parole on Noe’s minimum 10-year sentence.
Mr. Mitchell said Mr. Wersell’s account failed to mention other investment scandals, including the loss of $215 million in a hedge fund that’s still under investigation.
“To pin the entire sins of the BWC on Tom Noe is disingenuous,” Mr. Mitchell said.
The reaction across Ohio was nearly unanimous: A long prison term was well deserved for a man who deceived so many.
Lucas County Prosecutor Julia Bates, whose office spent more than three weeks convincing the jury of his guilt, said it was fair and that it may help restore public confidence in government.
“You’re supposed to be honest and if you aren’t, this is what happens to you,” she said.
Ms. Bates was part of a multi-agency task force that spent months and several million dollars investigating Noe and other problems with the bureau’s investments. Two stockbrokers are currently on trial in federal court in Akron for allegedly bribing a bureau official.
David Freel, executive director of the Ohio Ethics Commission, one of the task force agencies, said the sentence was fair.
“The judge summarized exactly what it was: a criminal and unethical scheme to defraud workers and employers of their hard-earned workers’ compensation premiums,” Mr. Freel said.
Judge Thomas Osowik cited ‘overwhelming evidence’ that
Tom Noe ‘cooked the books’ in the premeditated scheme.
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THE BLADE/JEREMY WADSWORTH
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‘It’s a huge sentence’
Greg White, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, whose office successfully prosecuted Noe on the federal campaign charges, said “the judge did what the judge is supposed to do, in terms of weighing all the factors to consider.”
“It’s a huge sentence. There’s no question about that,” Mr. White said.
Even Robert Bennett, chairman of the Ohio Republican Party who once worked closely with Noe on GOP fund-raising and the campaign to re-elect President Bush, weighed in. He sent a letter to Judge Osowik calling for a harsh sentence, accusing Noe of engaging in “self-enriching schemes that defrauded the people of their money and the government of its credibility.”
“As his name has become a symbol of political corruption in Ohio, his punishment must become a symbol of the retribution imposed on those who violate the public trust,” Mr. Bennett wrote.
Just five months ago, Mr. Bennett was scolding Judge Osowik. When the judge agreed to delay the trial until Oct. 10, Mr. Bennett held a press conference and called on Judge Osowik to step down from the case.
Mr. Bennett said the judge, a Democrat, was moving the trial for the publicity it would generate, publicity that would help him in his bid, ultimately successful, for a spot on the Ohio 6th District Court of Appeals.Worn and troubled
Joe Kidd, the former director of the Lucas County Board of Elections and ex-Noe protégé who helped launch the federal investigation that led to Noe’s 27-month prison term, said he was surprised by Noe’s appearance.
Mr. Kidd, who is working for a Detroit-area company, said he saw a picture of Noe in court yesterday and read about the sentencing.
“I thought he looked worn and troubled. He looked like the weight of the world was on his shoulders, and indeed it was,” Mr. Kidd said. “The whole affair is really sad and unfortunate for everyone.
“There should be no pleasure in it for anybody. Obviously, the state of Ohio and the victims of his crimes can’t be happy that any of this happened,” Mr. Kidd said.
Staff writer Steve Eder contributed to this report.
Contact Mike Wilkinson at: mwilkinson@theblade.com or 419-724-6104.
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