Tom Noe became the symbol of political corruption in Ohio. In April of 2005, The Toledo Blade broke a story about a $50 million investment by the Ohio Workers Compensation Board in a rare coin fund managed by Noe. Within two months, it became clear that Noe had stolen millions of dollars from that fund and the state of Ohio. Yesterday, Noe was sentenced to 18 years in prison for these crimes:

Judge Thomas Osowik, citing the “overwhelming evidence” against Noe, 52, sentenced him to serve 18 years in a state prison, and for the sentence to begin after he serves 27 months on an unrelated federal offense.

Noe would be 72 when released.

Judge Osowik said Noe, the former Republican fund-raiser who helped the successful campaigns of Gov. Bob Taft and President Bush, took the money from the rare-coin funds he managed for the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation “for one purpose: to present some type of facade that you had this bottomless cup of wealth and luxury at your disposal when in fact it was at the state’s expense.”

Judge Osowik said the evidence showed that Noe “cooked the books” in “an elaborate scheme” that was premeditated. He expressed surprise that Noe continued stealing even after a midlevel bureau auditor started asking tough questions about the wisdom of investing public money in rare coins.

That scandal and its fallout brought down the entire GOP statewide hierarchy. Along the way, Governor Bob Taft was convicted of breaking several ethics laws :

Facing Judge Mark S. Froehlich of Franklin County Municipal Court yesterday morning, Mr. Taft, with his wife, Hope, sitting behind him, apologized for violating the state’s ethics laws by failing to file complete financial disclosure statements. Visibly shaken in the courtroom, Mr. Taft, pleaded no contest to four first-degree misdemeanor ethics violations, which carried maximum sentences of six months in jail and a $1,000 fine each.

“As governor, I have made it clear that I expect all public employees to follow both the letter and the spirit of the ethics law and have demanded no less from myself,” he told the judge. “I have personally failed to live up to those expectations, as well as the expectations of the public, and I am disappointed in myself.”

Prosecutors on Wednesday charged the governor with breaking state law by knowingly failing to disclose dozens of golf outings and gifts he received from lobbyists and businessmen. State officeholders are required under state law to disclose the source of gifts valued above $75.

 The entire catologue of articles on this issue by the Toledo Blade can be found here.