Ohio GOP Rare Coin Scandal expands -- it includes "collectibles"

Okay, another day, another bizarre development in the Ohio GOP coin-gate scandal. When this thing first started, there was widespread criticism about the risky nature of investing public dollars in rare coins. It's worse. Coins are probably safer than some of what the state now owns.

Today's news is that notorious GOP fundraiser Toe Noe was using the state's money for more than rare coins. He was investing in other "collectibles" -- a term which is yet to be fully defined. The Cleveland Plain Dealer has this story:

Auditors were stunned Wednesday to discover that money from the state's $55.4 million rare-coin investment has been spent on "an enormous inventory" of collectibles, such as autographs or other valuable papers.

The Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation, which engineered the investment, also discovered a note re cording a $530,000 loan to an unknown person that used col lectibles as collateral.

So, as it stands, the State of Ohio can't even check it's $50 million dollar investment...and it turns out, the state owns more than the rare coins....it's other collectibles. Noe won't allow them in his buildings to start the inventory:

For the third straight day, bureau auditors were prevented from examining the state's largest cache of rare coins in Maumee, being held by Tom Noe, a major Republican fund-raiser who is the subject of investigations by six state and federal agencies over allegations of influence peddling and campaign contributions.

Since this story broke, the posts on Americablog have often joked about what they could invest in next: baseball cards? beanie babies? Looks like you were all on to something. Ohio doesn't even know now what it is that they own, except it's a lot of "collectibles:"

"The investments included non-coin collectibles, things like valuable letters and papers," [Noe's Attorney William] Wilkinson said. "These are assets of the coin funds. There is an enormous inventory of non-coin collectibles." Wilkinson was unable to provide details.

This is a glaring example of how the GOP can't be trusted with public money. When this scandal first broke in April, every major GOP figure leapt to the defense of Tom Noe. Now, they have all been forced to investigate him.

I took a look back at what Secretary of State/Bush Chair/GOP gubernatorial candidate said in the April 6 2005 The Toledo Blade which reported that Blackwell had no problem with this action:

Mr. Blackwell said his position hasn't changed, but he said he would not criticize the bureau's investment in rare coin funds.

"I would never have any reason to question Jim Conrad's integrity. When you run a fund size of $18 billion and you're looking at $50 million, 'Beyond what one's disposition might be, is that an irresponsible amount of risk?' Most people would say no," he said.

And we let Ohio pick our president.