Thomas W. Noe (born July 1954) is a former Ohio Republican party fundraiser and activist, guilty of money laundering for the 2004 Bush-Cheney campaign and of theft and corruption in the Coingate scandal.
In the 2004 election, the county experienced extreme voting difficulties, including criminal investigations and manipulation of the recount,[2][3] and many officials resigned or were suspended.
[citation needed] In late 2004, Noe wrote to the Ohio Ethics Commission to seek an opinion on his involvement with Hi-Genomics LLC, which licensed a patent on plant genetic engineering from the University of Toledo.
Noe was appointed chairman of the U.S. Mint's Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee (CCAC) by U.S. Secretary of the Treasury John W. Snow in October 2004.
In doing so, Noe skirted federal campaign finance funding limits while meeting a pledge to raise $50,000 for the October 30, 2003, fund-raiser.
In addition to "conduits" who received between $1,750 and $4,000 from Noe to make either one or two contributions, prosecutors claim that the former rare-coin dealer used two people as "super-conduits," giving them $6,000 and $14,300 that they then split with others who attended the fund-raiser."
[6][7] On September 12, 2006, Noe was sentenced to 27 months in a federal prison for funneling money into the re-election campaign of President Bush illegally.
[9][10] On February 13, 2006, the Lucas County District Court of Ohio indicted Noe along with his business partner, Timothy LaPointe.
[12] On November 20, 2006, Thomas Noe was given an 18-year sentence, to be served after the 27-month federal sentence imposed in September, fined $213,000, "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 for the money missing from the rare-coin fund, estimated at $13.7 million.
[14] Earlier, on August 17, 2005, Ohio Governor Bob Taft was charged with four criminal misdemeanors stemming from his failure to disclose golf outings paid for by lobbyists, as well as some undisclosed gifts.