How to Steal a Presidential Election, Part Deux.

Allegations arose before '04 election
Democrats say Noe case concealed to assist Bush

Here's the scandal:

Officials muffle concerns

The Blade first reported problems with Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation investments on April 3 [2005] in a story revealing that the agency had given $50 million since 1998 to Mr. Noe to create a rare-coin fund.

At the time, he was a Republican appointee to the Ohio Board of Regents and Ohio Turnpike Commission and a major GOP fund-raiser for not only President Bush but for Governor Taft and a host of other top Ohio Republicans.

Three weeks ago, Mr. Noe's attorneys told law enforcement authorities that $10 million to $12 million of the state's rare-coin assets were "unaccounted for."

In a 2000 review of Mr. Noe's coin investment, Keith Elliott, manager of internal audits for the bureau, wrote that the practices of the coin fund "could potentially expose both the BWC and the fund managers to adverse public scrutiny regarding the appropriate use of state funds."

In the year before the election, a number of concerns about the coin fund came to the attention of top state officials, who failed to make them public.

First, in October, 2003, two state-owned coins worth $300,000 were reported stolen in the mail, and then a 2004 audit of the venture's Colorado subsidiary showed that 119 coins worth $93,000 were reported missing.

Mr. Noe never notified Colorado authorities about the missing coins - and information was not made public about the loss until The Blade's stories began.

The allegation today is that Noe lost $215 million from the state fund intended for injured workers.

And the cover-up:

Lucas County, Ohio officials knew of charges that Republican fundraiser Tom Noe was cheating federal election contribution laws in March, 2004, yet conveniently for Bush, the allegations never made it to public view until after the November election.

The county (Republican-controlled, natch) was taking testimony before a grand jury in June of 2004 but never transmitted the information to the feds until three weeks before the election.

Never made it to public view until after the election & the certification of the results.

Neat trick, eh?