The Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation (BWC) invested hundreds of millions of dollars in high risk or unconventional investment vehicles run by people closely connected to the Ohio Republican Party who had made large campaign contributions to many senior Republican party officials.
Tom Noe was convicted of running a criminal enterprise, the theft of $13 million from the fund, and of keeping a second set of books to cover for it.
[citation needed] The Coingate scandal centers on Tom Noe, an Ohio government figure, GOP fundraiser and coin dealer.
[3] In March 1998, Thomas Noe Inc. was awarded a $50 million[a] investment contract for the Ohio Workers' Compensation fund.
The Ohio newspaper The Toledo Blade made a public records request to the government to view the mortgage documents.
The judge granted the Ohio Attorney General's request to immediately freeze the assets and the BWC was given complete control of the coin funds.
Ohio state investigators immediately began to check inventory of the various companies, reviewing records and documents at Numismatic Professionals and another subsidiary in Sarasota, Florida.
On July 29, The former chief of staff to Governor Bob Taft, Columbus lobbyist Brian Hicks, and his assistant, Cherie Carroll, were convicted of ethics violations in the widening Coingate scandal.
On August 18, 2005, Governor Bob Taft pleaded no contest to four misdemeanor violations of state ethics laws.
Taft admitted that over seven years he failed to report 45 golf outings provided to him, including a number of events and gifts from Noe, and was assessed a $4,000[h] fine.
[7] On February 13, 2006, the Lucas County Court of Common Pleas indicted Noe,[5] along with his business partner, Timothy LaPointe.
[8] According to the indictments, among other acts, Noe and LaPointe borrowed coins from other businesses and individuals and fraudulently listed those as belonging to the state during annual audits in 2002, 2003 and 2004.