The key figure in the rare-coin investment scandal that cost the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation an estimated $13.7 million was sentenced today to 18 years in prison on state charges.

Tom Noe's sentence will be served after he finishes serving a 27-month federal term imposed in September for illegally laundering more than $45,000 destined for President Bush's re-election campaign in 2004.

Judge Thomas Osowik of Lucas County Court also fined Mr. Noe $213,000 and ordered him to pay both the cost of prosecution, estimated at nearly $3 million, and restitution for the money missing from the Workers' Compensation Bureau's rare-coin fund investment.

Mr. Noe's activities prompted a series of probes into financial dealings starting in 2005 that has also resulted in jail time on federal and state charges for Terrence Gasper, the bureau's former chief financial officer and the ouster of James Conrad, the bureau's former administrator.

John Mitchell, a lawyer for Mr. Noe, advised the court during the proceedings that other investigations are continuing concerning investment scandals at the bureau, including the loss of $215 million in a hedge fund.

The Bureau of Workers' Compensation gave Mr. Noe $25 million in 1998, followed by another $25 million in 2001 to invest in rare coins. Democrats charged that Mr. Noe got the money because of his ties with the Republican Party.

According to evidence presented at Mr. Noe's state criminal trial last week, he was given the money to buy and sell rare coins as an investment for the compensation fund.

Instead, according to evidence at trial, he used some of the money to pay off his own business debts and to finance a lavish lifestyle. Prosecutors in the state case said he falsified records to conceal the illegal activity.

Mr. Noe was tried on 40 separate state criminal counts and was convicted on 29 of them.

Tom Wersell, the head the of the Workers' Compensation Bureau's investigative unit, started the prosecution's part of the sentencing hearing by telling the court that before the rare-coin scandal, the Bureau “appeared to be a model” agency.

But, “by June 2005, all of that had changed. BWC had become synonymous with the term 'pay-to-play' and a culture of corruption . . . the pride is gone,” Mr. Wersell said.

Mr. Wersell said Mr. Noe “destroyed the reputation of the agency” and caused the bureau to provide false information about the coin fund. He also said the monetary loss from Mr. Noe's coin funds as well as investigative costs could have been used instead to help injured workers.

Special Reports /

Figure In Ohio Comp Fund Scandal Gets 18 Years

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