Corrupt Money Laundering and the Ohio Supreme Court

Article published Saturday, February 25, 2006Ex-Taft aides fined for ethics breaches2 didn't disclose cash from Noe
H. Douglas Talbott ( THE BLADE/DAVE ZAPOTOSKY )
Zoom Photo ReprintsBy JOSHUA BOAK BLADE STAFF WRITER
COLUMBUS — A pair of former high-ranking aides to Gov. Bob Taft and former Gov. George Voinovich were convicted yesterday for not publicly disclosing thousands of dollars they received from Republican fund-raiser Tom Noe, who was indicted last week for stealing from a $50 million state rare-coin investment.As members of state boards, Columbus lobbyists Doug Moormann, 38, and H. Douglas Talbott, 41, were obligated to inform the Ohio Ethics Commission about the cash they received from Mr. Noe. Additionally, Mr. Talbott illegally laundered money from Mr. Noe to the campaigns of three Ohio Supreme Court justices.An investigator yesterday said the task force is examining whether the $39,000 that Mr. Noe gave Mr. Talbott in a 2002 loan to buy a vacation home in Lakeside came from the state’s rare-coin investment.
Doug Moormann
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On Aug. 29, 2002, Mr. Noe wrote a check for $100,000 from Capital Coin II to his Vintage Coins accounts for “coin purchases.”On that same day, Mr. Noe wrote a $35,000 check on the Vintage Coins account to Larry Schottenstein, a Columbus real-estate executive who sold the Lakeside home that Mr. Talbott bought.Mr. Talbott also received a $4,000 check from Mr. Noe’s Vintage Coin, and he told investigators that he wrote a check two days later to Mr. Schottenstein in the same amount. He said the $39,000 from Mr. Noe was for a down payment on the Lakeside home, and Mr. Schottenstein last year told The Blade that he did not remember details about the checks. In an agreement with prosecutors, Mr. Moormann and Mr. Talbott pleaded “no contest,” just as the governor and two of his other former aides, Brian Hicks and Cherie Carroll, pleaded last summer after being charged with ethics violations for accepting gifts from Mr. Noe.Judge Scott VanDerKarr of the Franklin County Municipal Court found Mr. Moormann guilty and fined the governor’s former assistant for criminal justice $1,000 and ordered him to deposit $5,000 he took from Mr. Noe into an escrow account.Mr. Talbott, who managed the governor’s appointments to state commissions until 2000, was found guilty and fined $3,960 for three misdemeanors and directed to put place the $39,000 he received from the coin dealer into an escrow account.“I apologize for any harm this may have caused, and I assure you that I won’t be in this courtroom or any other courtroom,” he said, forgetting to add the word “again” to his statement.With a $1,960 payment from Mr. Noe in 2004, Mr. Talbott laundered campaign donations to three Ohio Supreme Court justices: Chief Justice Thomas Moyer, Terrence O’Donnell, and Judith Lanzinger. Judge VanDerKarr fined him $1,960 for that offense.The $39,000 payment that Mr. Noe made to Mr. Talbott to buy a Lakeside vacation home was supposed to be a loan, but Mr. Noe never collected any payments from Mr. Talbott, only asking for repayment last May after The Blade reported about the loan and the state began to examine Mr. Noe’s management of the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation’s rare-coin funds, according to investigative documents. He was fined $1,000. Required to disclose gifts worth more than $75, Mr. Talbott also failed to list the $160 in dinners he ate at Morton’s Steakhouse in Columbus as a member of the “Noe Supper Club.” A $1,000 fine resulted.“At the time, Noe was not trying to lobby him at all,” said Roger Synenberg, Mr. Talbott’s lawyer, outside the courtroom. “He wasn’t asking for any favors. They were just friends.”Minutes before Mr. Talbott’s conviction, Mr. Moormann answered questions from the judge.“You understand I can give you up to 180 days in jail?” Judge VanDerKarr asked.“Yes, sir,” Mr. Moormann responded, nodding his head.Almost two weeks after Mr. Moormann joined the state’s Transportation Review Advisory Committee on Aug. 17, 2004, Mr. Noe gave him a $5,000 loan to help him pay dual mortgage payments.He had recently moved to the Cincinnati area, but had not yet sold his home in the Columbus area.Mr. Moormann, now an executive with the Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce, failed to report the loan, resulting in the misdemeanor ethics charge. The loan was never repaid to Mr. Noe.After being sentenced, Mr. Moormann and his lawyer declined to comment. “These folks are folks who have been around political processes,” said David Freel, the ethics commission’s executive director. “They know what they have to disclose. And disclosure is important because that is how you, and the public, knows who is trying to influence policy.”Mark Rickel, a spokesman for Mr. Taft, said the governor continues to be “disappointed” by the actions of his former staff members.“It is what it is,” Mr. Rickel said. “He expected everyone and expects everyone to work with the highest level of integrity.”Blade staff writer Steve Eder contributed to this report.