Petro urged to make Republicans repay funds from Noe [View All]

Article published Tuesday, October 4, 2005

Petro urged to make Republicans repay funds from Noe

By JOSHUA BOAK
BLADE STAFF WRITER

A Toledo-area businessman has asked Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro to compel the Lucas County Republican Party to repay $63,000 in loans it received from Tom Noe during the closing weeks of the 2002 and 2004 elections.

“Petro gets a first crack at it,” said Ben Konop, a lawyer for Raymond Zak, president of Tee Tops, which specializes in making T-shirts. “This is just giving him that legally required first option to have his office bring this lawsuit on behalf of the taxpayers. If he doesn’t, then we have an opportunity to do it.”

The attorney general last week outlined how Mr. Noe allegedly stole at least $4 million from the $50 million rare-coin investment he managed for the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation. Bank records indicate that Mr. Noe used the state’s money to buy a Catawba Island vacation home, settle a $393,000 commercial loan, and landscape a Florida Keys retreat, according to Mr. Petro’s allegations.

A letter sent yesterday to the attorney general by Mr. Konop notes that “if current allegations are proven true, Mr. Noe may have misappropriated taxpayer dollars to provide crucial funding to partisan political campaigns in Lucas County.”
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http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051004/NEWS24/51004001