"I work for $4 million. Plus expenses.... that's another $12 million."

The Coingate story is like a supernova. It's gone from a small, dense mass of corruption to a massive explosion that consumes everything around it. Everything Republican, that is.

The story, which began with GOP fundraiser Tom Noe being granted a large investment account of the state's workers' comp money. That struck many as an odd investment decision, since he's a coin dealer. Then money started disappearing. Lots and lots of money. Tens of millions of dollars, in fact. And when reporters started asking questions about the missing money, things really blew up. Virtually every top-level state official seemed to have already known about the losses and done nothing. And governor Taft was still trying to get favors for Tom Noe from the White House.

But the story continues to grow. This just in, courtesy of OD1.

Besides accusing Maumee coin dealer Thomas W. Noe of pilfering $4 million from a state investment he managed, authorities also are questioning the millions of dollars Noe charged the state in expenses.

"Expenses paid by the coin fund could very well be improperly paid," Attorney General Jim Petro said at a news conference last week. He has declined to elaborate as the investigation continues.

The reported expenses from the $50 million investment in two coin funds Noe managed for the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation total $12.6 million from 1998 through 2004, records show — an amount equivalent to 25 percent of what the bureau allocated to him.