According to reports the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation will net as much as $54.9 Million, after expenses, from the divestment of assets sold off from the infamous rare-coin fund managed by Tom Noe.

The Toledo Blade reported that “after more than three years of liquidation, the agency is set to recoup more than the $50 million the state agency fronted former Toledo-area rare-coin dealer Tom Noe to manage the venture beginning in 1998. But the surplus deviates vastly from the $14 million or more in profit the bureau could have earned if it invested the money conservatively in money markets, government bills, or index funds, according to projections by the BWC’s investment department.”

The report was unclear if the total recovery figure, or the estimates of potential profit, included dispersements previously made by Noe during the time the fund was still under his control.

Bill Brandt, whose Chicago-based firm Development Specialists Inc was hired by the state to lead the state’s liquidation efforts, said the fact that the coin fund will return its principal doesn’t let Noe off the hook.

“I’ve heard people say, ‘Well, you’ve returned all the principal, so maybe Noe wasn’t guilty,’•” said Mr. Brandt, the CEO of Development Specialists Inc. “Well, there’s $13 million to $18 million worth of interest missing here. This was used as a personal piggy bank. People have blinders on.”

He added, “Getting the principal back is a watershed event because it normally does not happen. We’ve got to consider ourselves measurably lucky that we did that.”

Starting in June, 2005, Brandt began selling off collections of coins and other rare collectibles, and negotiating settlements to lawsuits.

The bureau recently sold stock in Numismatic Guaranty Corporation, a Florida-based coin grading company, for $7.6 million.

Actually the fund has now returned more than just the original $50 million principal. In fact according to the bureau estimates the gross recovery amount was over 60 Million with projecting net proceeds of $53.5 million to $54.9 million from the coin funds after deducting at least $6.2 million in expenses. The expenses so far consist of $1.2 millions in settlements and $4.6 million in professional services, including $2.4 million for Development Specialists Inc.

Noe, 53, who owned Vintage Coins & Collectibles in Maumee,Ohio, managed a $50 million investment in rare coins and other items for the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation. The investment was shut down in May 2005, and Noe was found guilty of stealing $13.7 million for personal use. He was sentenced to 18 years in prison.

Noe was also convivcted of laundering contributions to President Bush’s re-election campaign prior to the state fraud conviction and is presently serving a 27-month sentence in a central Florida federal prison.

When he is released from Federal prison early next year, Noe will return to Ohio to begin his state prison sentence stemming from the rare-coin scandal. However Noe is appealing his conviction and sentence, contending he did not receive a fair trial because of the media attention surrounding his case. More…

Bureau administrator Marsha Ryan is expected to update the BWC’s board of directors on the efforts to sell off the assets of the coin fund at a meeting today.

“The efforts to recover these assets on behalf of Ohio’s employers and injured workers should be recognized as an important accomplishment on the road to recovery for the BWC,” Ms. Ryan said in a statement. “The work of the investigators, lawyers, and liquidators who made this happen deserve recognition for their diligence and hard work over the last three years.

“Today, the BWC has built upon these recovery efforts and has begun a comprehensive, customer-focused reform to fundamentally improve Ohio’s workers’ compensation system.”