Coingate: Noe invested state money in troubled (but connected) gambling firm

Ohio's Coingate scandal reads like a bad political thriller. But then, the same is true of Tom DeLay, "Duke" Cunningham, the career of Karl Rove and Bush, and so on.

COLUMBUS — Tom Noe used state money to try to pump up an online gambling company in which he and other prominent Republicans were investors, records show.

Mr. Noe invested at least $100,000 of the state’s rare-coin money into financially troubled Games Inc., which has plummeted in value in the last year as its CEO Roger Ach II, a politically connected Cincinnati businessman, sought public contracts.

Mr. Noe is among several prominent Republicans who have invested in Games Inc.

Brian Hicks, former chief of staff to Gov. Bob Taft; Bob Bennett, chairman of the Ohio Republican Party [no relation to GOP gambling addict Bill Bennett, OD1 tells me]; former Senate President Stanley Aronoff, and Lucas County Republicans Patrick Kriner and Sally Perz all own shares in the company, records filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission show.

Thanks as always to OD1 for keeping the fresh news coming. He's the man. And this scandal is mind-boggling in its scope, which leads right to the Oval Office.