One thing which never came out during the investigations is the possible connection between Noe's coin company, Capital Coins and the now-defunct Capital Coin Grading Service (CCGS; not to be confused with at least one other CCGS which isn't involved). The way I see it is that Noe could have artifically inflated the value of the coins he purchased as investments for the state's retirement fund by inflating the coins' grades and putting them in his own slabs. He could easily make it appear a coin he bought for, say $4500 as an AU-58 was worth $45,000 by CCGS slabbing and grading as MS-65 (example used: 1894 Morgan). Proceeding to the next logical step in this scenario, he could have then shown a paper profit and value above the total actually invested by using the bloated CCGS slabs' value in his books and skimmed leftover investment money not actually spent on coins. Judgement day comes when someone attempts to sell the coins in a legitimate auction.
I suspect Noe has his own retirement fund waiting for his eventual release.
The nuances of coin grading practices might have been beyond the investigators.
Fred
Posted 11/21/2006 8:57 pm
