49- Is this what you are referring to?
COLUMBUS – The number of missing rare coins purchased with state money controlled by local Republican fund-raiser Tom Noe now totals 121, documents obtained by The Blade show.
An accounting firm hired to check the inventory of rare coins purchased by Mr. Noe or his associates for the state found last year that not only were the coins missing, but 119 coins were possibly stolen by a Colorado coin dealer, according to a 2004 audit report released last week.
Mr. Noe hired the dealer to run a coin subsidiary funded with money from the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation, the agency charged with paying the medical bills and providing income to workers injured on the job.
The 119 missing coins are in addition to two coins worth $300,000 owned by the state that were lost in the mail in 2003, confirmed Jeremy Jackson, press secretary for the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation.
The state doesn’t know what happened to any of the coins, Mr. Jackson said.
The Blade first reported April 3 that since 1998 the bureau has invested $50 million in rare coin funds controlled by Mr. Noe, a local coin dealer and frequent contributor to local, state, and national Republican campaign committees.
He was President Bush’s northwest Ohio campaign chairman in last year’s presidential race and because of the contributions he raised for the President, he earned the coveted status of a Bush “pioneer.”
But his work raising cash for the President’s re-election campaign has also made him the subject of a U.S. Justice Department and FBI investigation.
U.S. Attorney Gregory White, in Cleveland, disclosed last week that Mr. Noe is the subject of the federal probe into possible
federal campaign contribution violations.
The Ohio Inspector General has also launched a separate investigation into Mr. Noe, his coin ventures, and into “alleged wrongful acts associated with the investment practices” of the bureau.
After a bureau auditor raised strong concerns in 1999 about whether the state’s millions were adequately protected in the rare coin funds, the state and Mr. Noe agreed that an accounting firm would review coin inventories and report its findings to the state. The state’s coins are stored across the country, Mr. Noe has said.
In a report covering July 1, 2003, to June 30, 2004, the accounting firm Plante & Moran found a problem with one of Mr. Noe’s Capital Coin Fund subsidiaries – Numismatic Professionals, LLC., based in Evergreen, Colo.
“There were 119 coins for which the physical location of the coin could not be determined with a total cost of approximately $93,000,” the auditor’s report stated.
“Management believes this could relate to a misappropriation of assets by a former employee during fiscal year 2004.”
The coins were purchased by Numismatic Professionals with state money the bureau gave to Mr. Noe, which he then transferred to the subsidiary.
The estimated market value of the coins, and details about them, were not included in the report.
The coin dealer who managed Numismatic Professionals at that time was Mike Storeim, of Evergreen, Colo.
He’s the same coin dealer who told authorities in 2003 that two state coins worth roughly $300,000 were lost in the mail.
Last year, Mr. Storeim was suspended by the Professional Numismatists Guild for breaching the organization’s code of ethics.
The organization, based in California, represents leading rare coin experts and is designed to make the hobby safe for collectors and investors.
“We don’t discuss ongoing cases, but I can confirm that Michael Storeim, of Evergreen, Colo., was suspended as a member of the Professional Numismatists Guild on Aug. 16, 2004, for violations of the Professional Numismatists Guild’s code of ethics,” said Donn Pearlman, a guild spokesman.
Mr. Pearlman said the guild, which has about 250 members, rarely issues suspensions.
“When there’s a reported breach of the code of ethics, that is taken very seriously. In the last 15 years, there have only been a few suspensions or expulsions,” he said.
A spokesman for Gov. Bob Taft said yesterday the governor’s office was unaware that a total of 121 coins are now missing. He referred questions to the bureau. “This is their management. This is news we’ll have to talk to the bureau about,” Mark Rickel, the spokesman, said.
State Sen. Marc Dann, a Democrat from suburban Youngstown who has been critical of the state’s rare coin investment since it was uncovered, said yesterday the revelation that an additional 119 coins are missing is more evidence that the state needs to get out of the investment and get its money back.
“From the start, I had hoped for the best and prepared for the worst. I couldn’t have imagined how bad this could be,” he said. “What’s horrible is the Republicans are so addicted to the campaign contributions, they could not get out of this thing.
“We need to work with the attorney general’s office and the bureau’s oversight commission to salvage what we can,” he said.
Democrats in the legislature have claimed that the bureau gave Mr. Noe $50 million to invest because of his generous contributions to state GOP campaign committees and Republican candidates.
Records show that Mr. Noe has over the last decade contributed more than $11,000 to both Governor Taft and former Gov. George Voinovich, now a U.S. senator for Ohio.
He has contributed more than $70,000 to other Republican candidates over the last 11 years.
Last year, Mr. Noe informed the state that an employee of Numismatic Professionals was misappropriating assets.
Mr. Noe told The Blade in a March interview that Capital Coin was studying the business deals of Numismatic Professionals, managed by Mr. Storeim.
Mr. Noe would not provide details at the time, but he said the review was unrelated to the two coins that Mr. Storeim reported were lost in the mail in October, 2003.
Mr. Noe’s Capital Coin uses wholly owned subsidiaries to buy and sell coins for the state.
Capital Coin, which was set up by Mr. Noe to take receipt of the state’s $50 million and is managed by him, provides the money for the subsidiaries to buy rare coins.
Mr. Noe then hires coin dealers he knows to run the subsidiaries.
Mr. Storeim used state money Mr. Noe gave him to buy for $185,000 the two coins he claimed were lost in the mail.
The market value of the coins was about $300,000 when they went missing.
One was an 1855 $3 gold coin, the other an 1845 $10 gold coin.
They were being sent to Mr. Storeim by Express Mail from a professional coin grading company in California, which certified their quality.
He said when he got the package it appeared that it had been tampered with.
Mr. Storeim said after opening the package, he found the two coins missing. He contacted Mr. Noe within minutes and later filed a report with the Jefferson County, Colorado, Sheriff’s Department.
The sheriff’s department ruled that it couldn’t determine how the coins were lost and closed the case, a department spokesman said.
Mr. Noe told The Blade that he accepted the explanation for the two lost state coins. However, both he and Mr. Storeim agreed they have a broader disagreement. Neither Mr. Noe nor Mr. Storeim disclosed to The Blade that any additional state-owned coins were missing.
A sheriff’s department spokesman said Friday no theft report was filed for the 119 missing coins.
Mr. Storeim Friday referred questions to his attorney, who declined comment.
Mr. Storeim also sent an e-mail to The Blade stating that he would not comment.
Mr. Noe has not returned calls to The Blade. His Toledo attorney, James Tuschman, also didn’t return messages seeking comment.
He and Mr. Noe are members of the Ohio Board of Regents, which oversees the state-supported higher education system. Mr. Noe is also chairman of the Ohio Turnpike Commission.
In an April 12 letter, Mr. Tuschman updated the bureau on the “investigation being conducted regarding probable embezzlement” by a former employee of Numismatic Professionals.
He identified that former employee as Mr. Storeim.
Mr. Tuschman wrote that the investigation started in March, 2004, based on “internal auditing controls,” and involved detailed accounting and investigation of all transactions” by Numismatic Professionals.
“Additionally, representatives from Toledo went to Evergreen, Colo., and took possession of inventory, collectibles, paperwork, and computers from the Evergreen office,” Mr. Tuschman wrote.
Mr. Tuschman wrote that Mr. Storeim’s resignation was “immediately accepted.”
Mr. Noe’s coin fund hired Plante & Moran, which has an office in Toledo, to quantify the amount of the “suspect transactions” and the potential loss, Mr. Tuschman wrote.
“It was also understood that the investigators may have to present expert testimony in a lawsuit or criminal proceeding related to the subject matter of the consultation,” Mr. Tuschman wrote.
In a March interview with The Blade, Mr. Storeim said he was in Mexico when Mr. Noe’s business partner, Tim LaPointe, came to Evergreen and “removed a great deal of personal property from my office.”
“It was all very planned,” Mr. Storeim said.
Mr. Noe previously confirmed that Capital Coin “confiscated some other coins that we felt were part of the fraud.”
After all of the charges and countercharges of fraud and theft of state-owned rare coins, a spokeman for the Bureau of Workers’ Compensation said on Friday that the bureau has “zero liability.”
Mr. Jackson, the bureau spokesman, said because Mr. Noe withheld $900,000 in bonuses that Mr. Storeim would have received and confiscated $400,000 worth of coins from the Colorado dealer, the bureau’s investments are safe.
Mr. Storeim, however, has said he will sue Mr. Noe for illegally stealing his coins. Mr. Noe, in turn, asserts he may pursue state or federal criminal charges against Mr. Storeim.
A letter and an e-mail Mr. Noe says Mr. Storeim sent to him last year provide some additional information about the state’s missing rare coins.
Mr. Noe released the March 15, 2004, letter and a March 30, 2004, e-mail to reporters last month.
The letter, signed “Mike,” states that monthly sales figures and a computer spreadsheet for coins purchased over three months didn’t match.
“I have engaged in the most self destructive, irrational behavior possible … left everybody a paper trail five miles wide to make sure that I couldn’t continue, and been in denial I did anything wrong,” the letter stated.
The March 30, 2004, e-mail from Mr. Storeim’s e-mail address to e-mail addresses for Mr. Noe and Mr. LaPointe states: “It is very important to me that any person that I wronged … be made whole during this process, and I don’t think you can do it without my help.
“As I have stated before, I accept responsiblity for my actions and am not trying to hide anything. You cannot imagine the remorse and guilt that I feel and the only way for me to lessen those feelings is to make sure that everyone is treated fairly, as quickly as possible.”
The e-mail stated it was also from “Mike.”
Mr. Storeim isn’t the only manager of a subsidiary buying and selling rare coins for the state who has caused problems for Mr. Noe and financial losses for the bureau’s investment fund.
Mark Chrans, of Malibu, Calif., who was hired in 1998 by Mr. Noe to manage Visionary Rare Coins, a wholly owned subsidiary of Capital Coin, caused Mr. Noe’s state-funded coin ventures to write off $850,000 over the last three years because of bad coin deals, an unpaid loan, and salary advances.
The Blade reported April 22 that Chrans was convicted in 1986 in a federal court in Springfield, Ill., of faking a coin transaction to cover up drug money.
He spent less than a year in prison after being found guilty of fraud and perjury.
Mr. Noe admitted after the conviction was reported in the newspaper that he had not done a background check on Chrans before handing over to him hundreds of thousands of dollars in state investments.
Blade Staff Writer Steve Eder contributed to this report.
Let’s talk Enron. The pride and joy of GW Bush. Ken Lay and his executives helped the Bush admin change regulations to allow unfettered greed to run rampant and steal billions from hard working Americans. Arthur Anderson company was involved. But the SEC pulled the string that unraveled the debacle. So the Bush judiciary did a poor job of prosecuting and the conservative Supreme Court just threw out the conviction of the Arthur Anderson Co. Next the head of the SEC was fired for doing his job. What next? Judge P. Owen and other right wing appointed judges will throw out Key Lay’s conviction. Corruption is rampant in the Bush administration. Shame.
people seem to quickly forget that Enron did all of their looting under the nose of the CLINTON justice department, and was brought to justice under the BUSH Justice department.
But, don’t let FACTS get in the way of some good ol’ Bush Bashing.
56, I think it is Ellis in another guise. Same anti-Bush animus, same Democrat talking points, same misinformation, and also when nailed, like ellis and shiloh, they try to change the subject.
I wonder why ellis, shiloh, and “jackson” are so dishonest to not admit that Lay slept in the Lincoln bedroom during the Clinton Admin, when the Clintons were selling that privilege for campaign contributions, and that Clinton Treas. Sec, Robert Rubin, went begging the Bush Admin. to help bury the Enron scandal and illegalities?
57- Anyone that read their stock reports, could have seen the numbers were way out of whack. People don’t usually question things when they are making money. They also fail to realize that it is the Bush administration that has pushed for the prosecution of these people. They were angry about the S.C. overturning the conviction of AA.
It’s amazing that because these lefties say “Bush” and “Enron” in the same breath, people actually believe that Somehow all this happened under the Bush administration, when, in fact, it happens under Clinton’s not-so-watchful eye.
Simply amazing.
But then again, the libs have blacks actually believing that they are looking out for them, so anything is possible.
GW Bush and Ken Lay were great friends before he became President. Lay and Enron were big financial supporters of Bush. I suppose you will try to say the Haliburton rip-offs were Clinton’s fault too. What about the 8.8 billion dollars missing in Iraq today? H-a-l-i-b-u-r-t-o-n = C-h-a-n-e-y = G-R-E-E-D. And you believe that the WH is upset about the SC overturning the AA case. They are laughing in their martinis like they will when Ken Lay get out. It’s their activist judges. Cut Medicaid and give huge tax breaks to the rich. Yeah they are looking out for the common man.
Mike, JJ isn’t a RINO, he’s a democrat troll. Notice he can’t charge democrats with greed. Remember the Keating 5? McCain and 4 Democrats, including John Glenn who were greedy, yet not a peep out of leftists like JJ.
Also, notice Zelda doesn’t chide any leftist to criticize Leftist democrats.
I’m just trying to follow JJ’s logic. Bush and Lay were friends while Lay and Enron were looting the company under the eye of the CLINTON administration
and while were at it…. why wouldnt Bush and Lay be friends? Bush was governor of Texas and Lay ran one of the largest ocmpanies..should they have been enemies?
Our governor, Ed Rendell, is friends with Brian Robers, CEO of Comcast…..is that not allowed in JJ’s world????? Should government automatically be hostile to business???
How should we behave, John Jackson, please tell us.
69, In JJ’s world, if you don’t “work” for a living, everything should be taken from you and redistributed to the good workers. People like him turn a blind eye to the evil rich like Kerry, Kennedy, Heinz-Kerry, Soros, and others who are Progressives with other people’s money, not their own.
It really is mind-boggling. I’m fascinated by what goes on in the liberal mind. I really am. How you can be so stupid as to simply hear something repeated over and over again, and then, in lemming-like fashion, start repeating it yourself. Pavlov would be so proud.
71, Mike, how long have you observed Zelda, shiloh, ellis, sandyb…?
None of them think, just repeat charges and dogma they’ve heard elsewhere.
Ellis can’t keep his job and I’m beginning to wonder if shiloh just spouts here because the say the things he says here on his real job would get him real trouble.
Mike, just a side question that I have no other way of asking privately. Is your wife Korean? I have a Korean daugher. I find it sick that people who have more than one race in their family are some of the first to be called racists on these boards.
No, she is Japanese. She’s there right now, coming back on Saturday.
Yeah, don’t you know, I’m a racist, hillbilly…. because my wife is Japanese, my friends are asian, african, gay, etc., I speak French, German, English and Chinese……
but, Hey, I”m just a right wing racist..don’t forget!!!
Your point is SO true.. I know limosine liberals whose only close contact with minorities are the ones cleaning their homes, yet it is US that are the racists….
75, 76, Yes, and among my friends are a couple from Mainland China, His father is a Col. in the PRC, and she’s emigrated North Korean. Both of them are naturalized US Citizens who happen to be Born Again Christians.
Oops, I forgot, to the “Progressives”, Born Again Christians are Terrorist animals that have to be silenced, especially if they aren’t white.
You generalize my statements and bring up other issues but fail to address the issues. I agree there are evil Democrats. But the current subject is the Bush Administration. Would you agree that Enron was evil and stole billions of rate payers and taxpayers money? Would you agree that Haliburton is making huge profits due to the war at taxpayer expense? Do you know what profiteering is? I am a moderate. I have not been a supporter of the Democrats until GW Bush came along and is scaring the **** out of me. His budget reduces Medicaid by $10 billion and gives his supporters $109 billion in tax breaks. The corporations won’t pay for this war, Bush and his rich friends won’t pay, the moderate middle class will pay. Not all corporations are greedy, but those that are associated with the Bush admin are.
JJ, you are a democrap troll. You parrot charges with no evidence except your over tight underwear. I’d like to shove Enron up your rearend for all you really know about it you Marxist.
Not sure what the time period has to do with it. Lay shared his loot with Bush not Clinton. Enron stole billions from middle class tax payers and ratepayers. Where did the money go? To powerful Republicans. Enron was a republican company and bought people like Bush and Owen. Now it is Haliburton’s turn. They own Chaney lock stock and barrel. They are raking off billions off the war. While middle class kids are dying, Chaney is counting his money. What happened to the missing 8.8 billion dollars? It was used to buy a floundering Russian oil company. Greed is rampant in the Bush administration. Nixon, Reagan, GHW Bush, Carter, Clinton were all moderate presidents. Bush is completely controlled by the extreme right wing.
87-” Enron stole billions from middle class tax payers and ratepayers.”- no they didn’t steaL IT. The investors didn’t keep their eye on the ball. Had they paid attention when things looked good they would have determined that things were not as they appeared. Again, the only time people usually pay attention is when a bad thing happens.
“Now it is Haliburton’s turn. They own Chaney lock stock and barrel. They are raking off billions off the war” Actually he owns them to a certain extent. He is a stockholder. As for the company, they are making money as well as their competion. Halliburton been hiring to share the work. Someone has to get the work. Why not the best? Do you even know what they have accomplished? Or are you just more fixated on what you believe them to be?
After regulations were loosened, Enron artificially inflated energy prices at the expense of the ratepayers and taxpayers. The huge sums of money they stole, they split among themselves and the politicians they bought. A good friend of mine lost his complete retirement when Enron took control of his company and reinvested (w/o his consent) all of the company retirement money in their own (Enron) stock. Somehow you will find a way to blame him. Now you want to take Social Security from him too. Shame on you. The executives got richer and the taxpayers and ratepayers got poorer. That’s the right wing way. Give the middle class money to the rich.
89- “Somehow you will find a way to blame him”- No one can take control of your retirement account without your knowledge. Get some of the facts. As it is, ignorance is no excuse.
Most company retirement accounts are completely controlled by the company. I have personal knowledge of two people that have lost their complete retirement funds w/o having any say so. Plus a wife of a friend who’s retirement annuity has been reduced by half and her health benefits taken away completely. Have you heard of United Airlines? The money taken out of the employees’ paychecks is gone. The “activist” judge said “oh well” and the company lives on. The executives keep drawing their unreal salaries. This is corporate greed gone wild. More companies will follow. Screw the worker, the Bush slogan.
I’m really don’t understand how you are blaming President Bush for this. I think you should redirect your statements to the legislative branch of the last 10-20 years for not addressing this problem.
John Jaaaccckkkkssooooon. Why are you ATTEMPTING to pass yourself off as a moderate? Hell I detest moderates more the left wing nuts. At least left wing nuts say “this is where I stand”. No backbone to moderates.
Anyway, you are the typical garden variety left wing wacko. Be proud…… Unless you ever run across the likes of me. And then, hide in shame.
92-You obviously have no knowledge. There are risks involved in retirement accouts. The are losses as well as gains. Did your friends wife complain when she was making money? I would bet not.
96. as in “friend”. You know like when a guy says “me and my FRIEND went to Toronto this weekend”. You usually hear this type of conversation in hair salons etc.
First of all, moderates rule. You assume any one left of Hitler(Chaney) are left wing. I have voted both Repub and Demo for President. I notice that your responses only spout hate. As far as my friends wife’s retirement, she never “made” money. She was forced to pay a portion of her check into the company retirement account. The company had complete control of the account. She never got a dime back. The executives drained the money dry, then went bankrupt. Corp greed.
49- Is this what you are referring to?
COLUMBUS – The number of missing rare coins purchased with state money controlled by local Republican fund-raiser Tom Noe now totals 121, documents obtained by The Blade show.
An accounting firm hired to check the inventory of rare coins purchased by Mr. Noe or his associates for the state found last year that not only were the coins missing, but 119 coins were possibly stolen by a Colorado coin dealer, according to a 2004 audit report released last week.
Mr. Noe hired the dealer to run a coin subsidiary funded with money from the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation, the agency charged with paying the medical bills and providing income to workers injured on the job.
The 119 missing coins are in addition to two coins worth $300,000 owned by the state that were lost in the mail in 2003, confirmed Jeremy Jackson, press secretary for the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation.
The state doesn’t know what happened to any of the coins, Mr. Jackson said.
The Blade first reported April 3 that since 1998 the bureau has invested $50 million in rare coin funds controlled by Mr. Noe, a local coin dealer and frequent contributor to local, state, and national Republican campaign committees.
He was President Bush’s northwest Ohio campaign chairman in last year’s presidential race and because of the contributions he raised for the President, he earned the coveted status of a Bush “pioneer.”
But his work raising cash for the President’s re-election campaign has also made him the subject of a U.S. Justice Department and FBI investigation.
U.S. Attorney Gregory White, in Cleveland, disclosed last week that Mr. Noe is the subject of the federal probe into possible
federal campaign contribution violations.
The Ohio Inspector General has also launched a separate investigation into Mr. Noe, his coin ventures, and into “alleged wrongful acts associated with the investment practices” of the bureau.
After a bureau auditor raised strong concerns in 1999 about whether the state’s millions were adequately protected in the rare coin funds, the state and Mr. Noe agreed that an accounting firm would review coin inventories and report its findings to the state. The state’s coins are stored across the country, Mr. Noe has said.
In a report covering July 1, 2003, to June 30, 2004, the accounting firm Plante & Moran found a problem with one of Mr. Noe’s Capital Coin Fund subsidiaries – Numismatic Professionals, LLC., based in Evergreen, Colo.
“There were 119 coins for which the physical location of the coin could not be determined with a total cost of approximately $93,000,” the auditor’s report stated.
“Management believes this could relate to a misappropriation of assets by a former employee during fiscal year 2004.”
The coins were purchased by Numismatic Professionals with state money the bureau gave to Mr. Noe, which he then transferred to the subsidiary.
The estimated market value of the coins, and details about them, were not included in the report.
The coin dealer who managed Numismatic Professionals at that time was Mike Storeim, of Evergreen, Colo.
He’s the same coin dealer who told authorities in 2003 that two state coins worth roughly $300,000 were lost in the mail.
Last year, Mr. Storeim was suspended by the Professional Numismatists Guild for breaching the organization’s code of ethics.
The organization, based in California, represents leading rare coin experts and is designed to make the hobby safe for collectors and investors.
“We don’t discuss ongoing cases, but I can confirm that Michael Storeim, of Evergreen, Colo., was suspended as a member of the Professional Numismatists Guild on Aug. 16, 2004, for violations of the Professional Numismatists Guild’s code of ethics,” said Donn Pearlman, a guild spokesman.
Mr. Pearlman said the guild, which has about 250 members, rarely issues suspensions.
“When there’s a reported breach of the code of ethics, that is taken very seriously. In the last 15 years, there have only been a few suspensions or expulsions,” he said.
A spokesman for Gov. Bob Taft said yesterday the governor’s office was unaware that a total of 121 coins are now missing. He referred questions to the bureau. “This is their management. This is news we’ll have to talk to the bureau about,” Mark Rickel, the spokesman, said.
State Sen. Marc Dann, a Democrat from suburban Youngstown who has been critical of the state’s rare coin investment since it was uncovered, said yesterday the revelation that an additional 119 coins are missing is more evidence that the state needs to get out of the investment and get its money back.
“From the start, I had hoped for the best and prepared for the worst. I couldn’t have imagined how bad this could be,” he said. “What’s horrible is the Republicans are so addicted to the campaign contributions, they could not get out of this thing.
“We need to work with the attorney general’s office and the bureau’s oversight commission to salvage what we can,” he said.
Democrats in the legislature have claimed that the bureau gave Mr. Noe $50 million to invest because of his generous contributions to state GOP campaign committees and Republican candidates.
Records show that Mr. Noe has over the last decade contributed more than $11,000 to both Governor Taft and former Gov. George Voinovich, now a U.S. senator for Ohio.
He has contributed more than $70,000 to other Republican candidates over the last 11 years.
Last year, Mr. Noe informed the state that an employee of Numismatic Professionals was misappropriating assets.
Mr. Noe told The Blade in a March interview that Capital Coin was studying the business deals of Numismatic Professionals, managed by Mr. Storeim.
Mr. Noe would not provide details at the time, but he said the review was unrelated to the two coins that Mr. Storeim reported were lost in the mail in October, 2003.
Mr. Noe’s Capital Coin uses wholly owned subsidiaries to buy and sell coins for the state.
Capital Coin, which was set up by Mr. Noe to take receipt of the state’s $50 million and is managed by him, provides the money for the subsidiaries to buy rare coins.
Mr. Noe then hires coin dealers he knows to run the subsidiaries.
Mr. Storeim used state money Mr. Noe gave him to buy for $185,000 the two coins he claimed were lost in the mail.
The market value of the coins was about $300,000 when they went missing.
One was an 1855 $3 gold coin, the other an 1845 $10 gold coin.
They were being sent to Mr. Storeim by Express Mail from a professional coin grading company in California, which certified their quality.
He said when he got the package it appeared that it had been tampered with.
Mr. Storeim said after opening the package, he found the two coins missing. He contacted Mr. Noe within minutes and later filed a report with the Jefferson County, Colorado, Sheriff’s Department.
The sheriff’s department ruled that it couldn’t determine how the coins were lost and closed the case, a department spokesman said.
Mr. Noe told The Blade that he accepted the explanation for the two lost state coins. However, both he and Mr. Storeim agreed they have a broader disagreement. Neither Mr. Noe nor Mr. Storeim disclosed to The Blade that any additional state-owned coins were missing.
A sheriff’s department spokesman said Friday no theft report was filed for the 119 missing coins.
Mr. Storeim Friday referred questions to his attorney, who declined comment.
Mr. Storeim also sent an e-mail to The Blade stating that he would not comment.
Mr. Noe has not returned calls to The Blade. His Toledo attorney, James Tuschman, also didn’t return messages seeking comment.
He and Mr. Noe are members of the Ohio Board of Regents, which oversees the state-supported higher education system. Mr. Noe is also chairman of the Ohio Turnpike Commission.
In an April 12 letter, Mr. Tuschman updated the bureau on the “investigation being conducted regarding probable embezzlement” by a former employee of Numismatic Professionals.
He identified that former employee as Mr. Storeim.
Mr. Tuschman wrote that the investigation started in March, 2004, based on “internal auditing controls,” and involved detailed accounting and investigation of all transactions” by Numismatic Professionals.
“Additionally, representatives from Toledo went to Evergreen, Colo., and took possession of inventory, collectibles, paperwork, and computers from the Evergreen office,” Mr. Tuschman wrote.
Mr. Tuschman wrote that Mr. Storeim’s resignation was “immediately accepted.”
Mr. Noe’s coin fund hired Plante & Moran, which has an office in Toledo, to quantify the amount of the “suspect transactions” and the potential loss, Mr. Tuschman wrote.
“It was also understood that the investigators may have to present expert testimony in a lawsuit or criminal proceeding related to the subject matter of the consultation,” Mr. Tuschman wrote.
In a March interview with The Blade, Mr. Storeim said he was in Mexico when Mr. Noe’s business partner, Tim LaPointe, came to Evergreen and “removed a great deal of personal property from my office.”
“It was all very planned,” Mr. Storeim said.
Mr. Noe previously confirmed that Capital Coin “confiscated some other coins that we felt were part of the fraud.”
After all of the charges and countercharges of fraud and theft of state-owned rare coins, a spokeman for the Bureau of Workers’ Compensation said on Friday that the bureau has “zero liability.”
Mr. Jackson, the bureau spokesman, said because Mr. Noe withheld $900,000 in bonuses that Mr. Storeim would have received and confiscated $400,000 worth of coins from the Colorado dealer, the bureau’s investments are safe.
Mr. Storeim, however, has said he will sue Mr. Noe for illegally stealing his coins. Mr. Noe, in turn, asserts he may pursue state or federal criminal charges against Mr. Storeim.
A letter and an e-mail Mr. Noe says Mr. Storeim sent to him last year provide some additional information about the state’s missing rare coins.
Mr. Noe released the March 15, 2004, letter and a March 30, 2004, e-mail to reporters last month.
The letter, signed “Mike,” states that monthly sales figures and a computer spreadsheet for coins purchased over three months didn’t match.
“I have engaged in the most self destructive, irrational behavior possible … left everybody a paper trail five miles wide to make sure that I couldn’t continue, and been in denial I did anything wrong,” the letter stated.
The March 30, 2004, e-mail from Mr. Storeim’s e-mail address to e-mail addresses for Mr. Noe and Mr. LaPointe states: “It is very important to me that any person that I wronged … be made whole during this process, and I don’t think you can do it without my help.
“As I have stated before, I accept responsiblity for my actions and am not trying to hide anything. You cannot imagine the remorse and guilt that I feel and the only way for me to lessen those feelings is to make sure that everyone is treated fairly, as quickly as possible.”
The e-mail stated it was also from “Mike.”
Mr. Storeim isn’t the only manager of a subsidiary buying and selling rare coins for the state who has caused problems for Mr. Noe and financial losses for the bureau’s investment fund.
Mark Chrans, of Malibu, Calif., who was hired in 1998 by Mr. Noe to manage Visionary Rare Coins, a wholly owned subsidiary of Capital Coin, caused Mr. Noe’s state-funded coin ventures to write off $850,000 over the last three years because of bad coin deals, an unpaid loan, and salary advances.
The Blade reported April 22 that Chrans was convicted in 1986 in a federal court in Springfield, Ill., of faking a coin transaction to cover up drug money.
He spent less than a year in prison after being found guilty of fraud and perjury.
Mr. Noe admitted after the conviction was reported in the newspaper that he had not done a background check on Chrans before handing over to him hundreds of thousands of dollars in state investments.
Blade Staff Writer Steve Eder contributed to this report.
Let’s talk Enron. The pride and joy of GW Bush. Ken Lay and his executives helped the Bush admin change regulations to allow unfettered greed to run rampant and steal billions from hard working Americans. Arthur Anderson company was involved. But the SEC pulled the string that unraveled the debacle. So the Bush judiciary did a poor job of prosecuting and the conservative Supreme Court just threw out the conviction of the Arthur Anderson Co. Next the head of the SEC was fired for doing his job. What next? Judge P. Owen and other right wing appointed judges will throw out Key Lay’s conviction. Corruption is rampant in the Bush administration. Shame.
52- Back to Coingate. And by the way, the SC just overturned the conviction on A.A.
52- And the White House is ticked about the overturn of the conviction.
Just in case you need a history lesson, JJ…Enron did all of their looting between 1997 and 2000
I suppose it was Bush’s fault, hmmmm???????
55- He ran when confronted on coingate. Must be Ellis’ friend:roll:
people seem to quickly forget that Enron did all of their looting under the nose of the CLINTON justice department, and was brought to justice under the BUSH Justice department.
But, don’t let FACTS get in the way of some good ol’ Bush Bashing.
56, I think it is Ellis in another guise. Same anti-Bush animus, same Democrat talking points, same misinformation, and also when nailed, like ellis and shiloh, they try to change the subject.
I wonder why ellis, shiloh, and “jackson” are so dishonest to not admit that Lay slept in the Lincoln bedroom during the Clinton Admin, when the Clintons were selling that privilege for campaign contributions, and that Clinton Treas. Sec, Robert Rubin, went begging the Bush Admin. to help bury the Enron scandal and illegalities?
Nothing like facts to ruin a good Anti-Bush rant.
57- Anyone that read their stock reports, could have seen the numbers were way out of whack. People don’t usually question things when they are making money. They also fail to realize that it is the Bush administration that has pushed for the prosecution of these people. They were angry about the S.C. overturning the conviction of AA.
58- I was told yesterday that that is “politics”
It’s amazing that because these lefties say “Bush” and “Enron” in the same breath, people actually believe that Somehow all this happened under the Bush administration, when, in fact, it happens under Clinton’s not-so-watchful eye.
Simply amazing.
But then again, the libs have blacks actually believing that they are looking out for them, so anything is possible.
61- I think is speaks for the more simple minded sector of society.
62. Yes, it does. It speaks to the idiots who actually believe what they see on TV.
It speaks to the idiots in the 70′s who actually voted Walter Cronkite the “most trusted man in america”
That’s frightening… a friggin talking head, reading from a teleprompter…trusted…Yikes.
GW Bush and Ken Lay were great friends before he became President. Lay and Enron were big financial supporters of Bush. I suppose you will try to say the Haliburton rip-offs were Clinton’s fault too. What about the 8.8 billion dollars missing in Iraq today? H-a-l-i-b-u-r-t-o-n = C-h-a-n-e-y = G-R-E-E-D. And you believe that the WH is upset about the SC overturning the AA case. They are laughing in their martinis like they will when Ken Lay get out. It’s their activist judges. Cut Medicaid and give huge tax breaks to the rich. Yeah they are looking out for the common man.
Notice how when JJ the nutcase’s enron charge is debunked, he moves ever-so-hamhandedly right to Haliburton!!!
It’s comical.
he’s a moderate.
Mike, JJ isn’t a RINO, he’s a democrat troll. Notice he can’t charge democrats with greed. Remember the Keating 5? McCain and 4 Democrats, including John Glenn who were greedy, yet not a peep out of leftists like JJ.
Also, notice Zelda doesn’t chide any leftist to criticize Leftist democrats.
JJ is classic, he fit Enron, Halliburton and “tax cuts for the rich” into the SAME POST!
kudos!
I’m just trying to follow JJ’s logic. Bush and Lay were friends while Lay and Enron were looting the company under the eye of the CLINTON administration
and it’s BUsh’s fault????
is that what you are saying?
and while were at it…. why wouldnt Bush and Lay be friends? Bush was governor of Texas and Lay ran one of the largest ocmpanies..should they have been enemies?
Our governor, Ed Rendell, is friends with Brian Robers, CEO of Comcast…..is that not allowed in JJ’s world????? Should government automatically be hostile to business???
How should we behave, John Jackson, please tell us.
69, In JJ’s world, if you don’t “work” for a living, everything should be taken from you and redistributed to the good workers. People like him turn a blind eye to the evil rich like Kerry, Kennedy, Heinz-Kerry, Soros, and others who are Progressives with other people’s money, not their own.
It really is mind-boggling. I’m fascinated by what goes on in the liberal mind. I really am. How you can be so stupid as to simply hear something repeated over and over again, and then, in lemming-like fashion, start repeating it yourself. Pavlov would be so proud.
Do they EVER think for themselves????
71, Mike, how long have you observed Zelda, shiloh, ellis, sandyb…?
None of them think, just repeat charges and dogma they’ve heard elsewhere.
Ellis can’t keep his job and I’m beginning to wonder if shiloh just spouts here because the say the things he says here on his real job would get him real trouble.
Yeah, and their preferred method of debate seems to be throwing food….. at women…….and missing.
Mike, just a side question that I have no other way of asking privately. Is your wife Korean? I have a Korean daugher. I find it sick that people who have more than one race in their family are some of the first to be called racists on these boards.
No, she is Japanese. She’s there right now, coming back on Saturday.
Yeah, don’t you know, I’m a racist, hillbilly…. because my wife is Japanese, my friends are asian, african, gay, etc., I speak French, German, English and Chinese……
but, Hey, I”m just a right wing racist..don’t forget!!!
Your point is SO true.. I know limosine liberals whose only close contact with minorities are the ones cleaning their homes, yet it is US that are the racists….
typical.
75, 76, Yes, and among my friends are a couple from Mainland China, His father is a Col. in the PRC, and she’s emigrated North Korean. Both of them are naturalized US Citizens who happen to be Born Again Christians.
Oops, I forgot, to the “Progressives”, Born Again Christians are Terrorist animals that have to be silenced, especially if they aren’t white.
Mike, sometimes my daughter gets mistaken for being Japanese because she has some Japanese features and is tall.
My wife usually gets mistaken for something else ’cause she is shorter with dark skin….
who knows, at least no one guesses that I’m French….which, embarassingly enough, I am.
Let me correct that….
I’m AMERICAN… my family was smart enough to leave that shit hole.
Mike, my grandnephew is 1/4 French and 1/4 Black.
You generalize my statements and bring up other issues but fail to address the issues. I agree there are evil Democrats. But the current subject is the Bush Administration. Would you agree that Enron was evil and stole billions of rate payers and taxpayers money? Would you agree that Haliburton is making huge profits due to the war at taxpayer expense? Do you know what profiteering is? I am a moderate. I have not been a supporter of the Democrats until GW Bush came along and is scaring the **** out of me. His budget reduces Medicaid by $10 billion and gives his supporters $109 billion in tax breaks. The corporations won’t pay for this war, Bush and his rich friends won’t pay, the moderate middle class will pay. Not all corporations are greedy, but those that are associated with the Bush admin are.
And I ask you again, JJ…when did Enron do all of their looting?????
John Jaaaacccckkksssooooonnn. Moderates have no backbone.
I’ll answer your question…between 1997 and 2000
you are a crazy person.
JJ, you are a democrap troll. You parrot charges with no evidence except your over tight underwear. I’d like to shove Enron up your rearend for all you really know about it you Marxist.
Not sure what the time period has to do with it. Lay shared his loot with Bush not Clinton. Enron stole billions from middle class tax payers and ratepayers. Where did the money go? To powerful Republicans. Enron was a republican company and bought people like Bush and Owen. Now it is Haliburton’s turn. They own Chaney lock stock and barrel. They are raking off billions off the war. While middle class kids are dying, Chaney is counting his money. What happened to the missing 8.8 billion dollars? It was used to buy a floundering Russian oil company. Greed is rampant in the Bush administration. Nixon, Reagan, GHW Bush, Carter, Clinton were all moderate presidents. Bush is completely controlled by the extreme right wing.
87-” Enron stole billions from middle class tax payers and ratepayers.”- no they didn’t steaL IT. The investors didn’t keep their eye on the ball. Had they paid attention when things looked good they would have determined that things were not as they appeared. Again, the only time people usually pay attention is when a bad thing happens.
“Now it is Haliburton’s turn. They own Chaney lock stock and barrel. They are raking off billions off the war” Actually he owns them to a certain extent. He is a stockholder. As for the company, they are making money as well as their competion. Halliburton been hiring to share the work. Someone has to get the work. Why not the best? Do you even know what they have accomplished? Or are you just more fixated on what you believe them to be?
After regulations were loosened, Enron artificially inflated energy prices at the expense of the ratepayers and taxpayers. The huge sums of money they stole, they split among themselves and the politicians they bought. A good friend of mine lost his complete retirement when Enron took control of his company and reinvested (w/o his consent) all of the company retirement money in their own (Enron) stock. Somehow you will find a way to blame him. Now you want to take Social Security from him too. Shame on you. The executives got richer and the taxpayers and ratepayers got poorer. That’s the right wing way. Give the middle class money to the rich.
89- “Somehow you will find a way to blame him”- No one can take control of your retirement account without your knowledge. Get some of the facts. As it is, ignorance is no excuse.
I get the feeling JJ has a beef with Enron.
Most company retirement accounts are completely controlled by the company. I have personal knowledge of two people that have lost their complete retirement funds w/o having any say so. Plus a wife of a friend who’s retirement annuity has been reduced by half and her health benefits taken away completely. Have you heard of United Airlines? The money taken out of the employees’ paychecks is gone. The “activist” judge said “oh well” and the company lives on. The executives keep drawing their unreal salaries. This is corporate greed gone wild. More companies will follow. Screw the worker, the Bush slogan.
john jackson;
I’m really don’t understand how you are blaming President Bush for this. I think you should redirect your statements to the legislative branch of the last 10-20 years for not addressing this problem.
John Jaaaccckkkkssooooon. Why are you ATTEMPTING to pass yourself off as a moderate? Hell I detest moderates more the left wing nuts. At least left wing nuts say “this is where I stand”. No backbone to moderates.
Anyway, you are the typical garden variety left wing wacko. Be proud…… Unless you ever run across the likes of me. And then, hide in shame.
92-You obviously have no knowledge. There are risks involved in retirement accouts. The are losses as well as gains. Did your friends wife complain when she was making money? I would bet not.
94- It’s Ellis’ friend. Need we say more?
96. as in “friend”. You know like when a guy says “me and my FRIEND went to Toronto this weekend”. You usually hear this type of conversation in hair salons etc.
97-:lol:
First of all, moderates rule. You assume any one left of Hitler(Chaney) are left wing. I have voted both Repub and Demo for President. I notice that your responses only spout hate. As far as my friends wife’s retirement, she never “made” money. She was forced to pay a portion of her check into the company retirement account. The company had complete control of the account. She never got a dime back. The executives drained the money dry, then went bankrupt. Corp greed.
99-”She was forced to pay a portion of her check into the company retirement account”-I don’t think so.