INVESTMENT CASE Inventory reveals 121 coins missing

Auditors working with coin experts were denied access in the Ohio, Delaware and Pennsylvania dealers.
COLUMBUS (AP) -- The state on Tuesday sued to freeze the assets and take control of two collections of rare coins from the Toledo coin dealer the state had hired to manage them, while state investigators began an inventory of the coins to see if any are missing.
Two different state agencies are independently trying to inspect and count thousands of coins bought with state money by dealer Tom Noe and held in safes at dealers in five states.
While Noe agreed earlier this week to step down as head of the two Capital Coin funds, which are being dissolved, Attorney General Jim Petro sued on behalf of the Bureau of Workers' Compensation in Franklin County Common Pleas Court. The lawsuit seeks an emergency court order transferring control to the bureau and allowing it to move the coins to locations it chooses. The bureau has given Noe $50 million since 1998 to invest, and Noe shared in the profits. Now, 121 coins worth an estimated $400,000 are missing -- including gold coins minted in 1845 and 1855. The bureau has decided to end the investment and sell the coins.
Coin counting
Ohio Gov. Bob Taft on Monday ordered the bureau to compile a list of the coins to make sure all of them are accounted for.
Noe's attorney told him not to allow the inventories until he could have attorneys present. Inspectors from the Bureau of Workers Compensation were able to begin counting the coins in Colorado and Florida on Tuesday, and hoped later Tuesday to begin a review in Pennsylvania, bureau spokesman Jeremy Jackson said.
Inspections were delayed until Wednesday in Delaware and at Noe's shop in Maumee, a Toledo suburb.
"We're moving as quickly as we can, but we want to make sure we do an accurate accounting of the coins," Jackson said. "There will be surveillance of the facility 24 hours a day to the point in time that we gain access."
Access denied
Meanwhile, state auditors working with coin experts from Sotheby's auction house were denied access in the Ohio, Delaware and Pennsylvania dealers, said Jen Detwiler, spokeswoman for state auditor Betty Montgomery.
Auditor's officials said the request for having an attorney was reasonable, Detwiler said, but "if for whatever reason we cannot gain access we will take steps to gain access."
She would not elaborate, but Sotheby's spokesman Matthew Weigman said investigators might seek a court order.
Messages seeking comment were left at Noe's office and with two of his attorneys.
Also, the Ohio Ethics Commission is investigating if there were improper gift exchanges among officials involved in the coin investment, executive director David Freel said Tuesday. He would not name the officials or give examples and said the commission was acting independently of other agencies.
Disclosure forms
A former top aide to Taft told The Toledo Blade that he rented a Florida Keys vacation home from Noe for $300 to $500 for five nights, which the newspaper said was below market price of about $3,000 for similar homes. Brian Hicks, former chief of staff for Taft, said he did not disclose two stays at the home to the Ethics Commission because he felt he paid market value.
Noe this year filed his first disclosure forms, required by law, that he did business with a state agency while sitting on the boards of other agencies and commissions, Freel said.
Until this spring Noe was a member of the Ohio Turnpike Commission and Board of Regents. The Ethics Commission is examining whether he or other officials should have disclosed the business deal earlier.
The state inspector general also is investigating Noe's investment. In a separate case, the U.S. Attorney's office wants to know whether Noe gave friends money that they contributed to President Bush's re-election campaign, in the process bypassing election donation limits.