Petro urged to make Republicans repay funds from Noe

[Judi Lynn]

Article published Tuesday, October 4, 2005

Petro urged to make Republicans repay funds from Noe

By JOSHUA BOAK
BLADE STAFF WRITER

A Toledo-area businessman has asked Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro to compel the Lucas County Republican Party to repay $63,000 in loans it received from Tom Noe during the closing weeks of the 2002 and 2004 elections.

“Petro gets a first crack at it,” said Ben Konop, a lawyer for Raymond Zak, president of Tee Tops, which specializes in making T-shirts. “This is just giving him that legally required first option to have his office bring this lawsuit on behalf of the taxpayers. If he doesn’t, then we have an opportunity to do it.”

The attorney general last week outlined how Mr. Noe allegedly stole at least $4 million from the $50 million rare-coin investment he managed for the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation. Bank records indicate that Mr. Noe used the state’s money to buy a Catawba Island vacation home, settle a $393,000 commercial loan, and landscape a Florida Keys retreat, according to Mr. Petro’s allegations.

A letter sent yesterday to the attorney general by Mr. Konop notes that “if current allegations are proven true, Mr. Noe may have misappropriated taxpayer dollars to provide crucial funding to partisan political campaigns in Lucas County.”
(snip/...)

http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051004/NEWS24/51004001

[davidinalameda]

1. the Pukes are going to be swarming like sharks at a feeding frenzy

over this

trying to show who can be the toughest when they're all pretty dirty

[Judi Lynn]

2. Lavish lifestyle opened political doors for Noe

Article published Sunday, October 2, 2005

Lavish lifestyle opened political doors for Noe
Attorney general claims extravagance came at expense of state of Ohio

By CHRISTOPHER D. KIRKPATRICK
BLADE STAFF WRITER

J. Gilbert Reese remembers sacrificing an expensive bottle of Italian wine - the one he was saving for a special occasion - to the discerning palate of Tom Noe.

Mr. Reese, a folksy lawyer who helped found a technical trade school in his Newark, Ohio, hometown, invited the Noes over for drinks while they were all in the Florida Keys at their vacation homes a few years back. The two men served on the Ohio Board of Regents together.

At the home, Mr. Noe spoke of Pierre's, a fancy nearby restaurant, and the fine wine he bought there - not the cheap stuff of $80 a bottle and less. Mr. Reese knew then the bottle he stashed would have to come out. He didn't want to be embarrassed by serving cheap wine, he said.
(snip)

Far removed from the days of buying wine at Pierre's, Mr. Noe and his wife, Bernadette, are now accused by Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro in a civil filing last week of stealing from a $50 million state rare-coin fund to finance a heady lifestyle and to cultivate a millionaire's image. He is accused of using $43,773 in state money to buy palm trees and pay for other landscaping at a Florida Keys home, and to help purchase Mr. Noe's in-laws' lake- side property on Catawba Island for $270,000.
(snip/...)

http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051002/NEWS24/510020327