Noe Sentenced To 18 Years For Stealing Funds
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TOLEDO, Ohio — A GOP fund-raiser who embezzled from a state investment in rare coins was sentenced yesterday to 18 years in prison in a scandal that helped bring down Ohio’s ruling Republican Party on Election Day. Tom Noe, 52, also was fined $139,000.
Noe spent money as if he had “a bottomless cup of wealth and luxury” at his disposal, “when in fact it was at the state’s expense,” Common Pleas Judge Thomas Osowik said.
The sentence handed out to the politically connected coin dealer will be on top of the more than two years he was ordered to serve after pleading guilty earlier this year to illegally funneling $45,000 to President Bush’s reelection campaign.
Noe was the central figure in a scandal that dogged the Ohio Republican Party for more than a year. On Election Day, the Democrats won the governor’s office, a Senate seat, and other major offices after 12 years of GOP rule.
Until yesterday, prosecutors had not said whether Noe used any of the money to make campaign contributions. But after the sentencing, prosecutor Ron O’Brien said, “You can make those inferences.” Also for the first time, prosecutors calculated that Noe stole $13.7 million in all.
