Noe returns from Fla. to face charges

The coin dealer admits that $13 million is missing from a compensation fund.
TOLEDO (AP) -- A coin dealer whose prodigious fund raising for Republicans allowed him to rub shoulders with the party's leaders returned to Ohio to face charges that he illegally funneled donations to President Bush's re-election campaign.
Tom Noe was to be arraigned Monday in U.S. District Court.
He is accused of exceeding federal limits on campaign contributions by writing checks to friends and associates who then wrote their own checks to the Bush campaign.
Noe, 51, is the only one charged in the case.
He's also at the center of a state government scandal that has resulted in the convictions of Gov. Bob Taft and his former top aide on ethics charges for failing to report gifts.
Noe surrendered to authorities Friday in Florida where he has a home. He is free on bond.
About the charges
A federal grand jury on Thursday indicted the Toledo-area coin dealer on three counts, which accuse him of exceeding federal campaign limits, "knowingly and willfully" using others to make the contributions and causing the Bush campaign to file a false campaign finance statement.
Each count carries a 1- to 5-year prison sentence and a combined maximum of $950,000 in fines. Prosecutors and Noe's attorney say they never discussed a possible plea bargain.
Prosecutors say Noe illegally funneled $45,400 in contributions to Bush to fulfill his pledge to raise $50,000 for a fund-raiser in Columbus in October 2003. The fund-raiser was just over a year before Ohio gave Bush the White House.
Noe personally contributed more than $105,000 to Republicans including Bush and Taft during the last campaign.
His work for the GOP allowed him to meet with the president during several of his campaign visits to Ohio last year. Noe and his wife also attended the inaugural ball earlier this year.
He's well-known among state politicians and has won political appointments to state boards that oversee the Ohio Turnpike and Ohio's public universities.
In addition to the campaign donation charges, Noe is under investigation over a $50 million investment in rare coins he managed for the state workers' compensation fund. Noe has acknowledged that up to $13 million is missing, and Ohio's attorney general has accused him of stealing as much as $6 million. No charges have been filed in that case, though state officials say they plan to do so.