From The Associated Press, 2/24/06:
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1658010

Former Aides to Ohio Gov. Taft Plead No Contest to Ethics Law
Violations

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) --

Two former aides to Gov. Bob Taft pleaded no contest Friday to ethics
law violations alleging they failed to report loans from the coin
dealer at the center of Ohio's corruption scandal.

Doug Moormann and Douglas Talbott were the third and fourth former
Taft aides to face charges as a result of their relationship with Tom
Noe, a prominent Republican fundraiser who managed a controversial
state investment in rare coins.

Taft and two other administration members pleaded no contest last year
to similar charges of violating ethics laws.

Noe, 51, was accused in a recent 53-count indictment of embezzling at
least $1 million from the investment and has pleaded not guilty.

A state auditor's report this week said he funneled state money into
his own businesses starting on the day in 1998 that he received the
first of two $25 million investments from the state insurance fund for
injured workers.

Moormann, Taft's former executive assistant for business and industry,
pleaded no contest to violating ethics law by failing to report a
$5,000 loan from rare coin dealer Tom Noe in 2004.

Talbott, Taft's former director of boards and commissioners, pleaded
no contest to violating ethics law by failing to report a $39,000 loan
from Noe in 2002 and his participation in dinners at a Columbus
steakhouse hosted by Noe in 2003 and 2004.

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"Virtue has never been as respectable as money."

Mark Twain

Harry