The money will raise to more than $6.5 million the amount the state has allotted to probe Toledo, Ohio, coin dealer Tom Noe, a major Republican fund-raiser who has acknowledged that $13 million of the money he received from the injured workers' fund for coin investments is missing.

The additional money for an accounting was sought in part by State Auditor Betty Montgomery because three additional collections of coins have been found that were part of an investment for the state's fund that provides employer insurance for injured workers.

Meanwhile, Franklin County Common Pleas Judge David Cain in Columbus, Ohio, allowed Attorney General Jim Petro to tighten restrictions on Mr. Noe's assets.

Mr. Petro has accused Mr. Noe of stealing at least $4 million.

Yesterday, Judge Cain at the request of Mr. Petro agreed to reduce the value of any assets Mr. Noe can sell without permission to $5,000 from $15,000.

The action by Judge Cain modifies his May 27 order freezing all personal and business assets of Mr. Noe and his wife, Bernadette, so that the state can probe if any of those assets belong to the workers' compensation bureau.

In his ruling, Judge Cain said that Mr. Petro had presented enough evidence to show Mr. Noe may have converted state funds to personal use. The judge also ruled that the May order applied to Bernadette Noe because of indications she may have billed her husband's coin funds for legal work.

While Mrs. Noe's bills don't show conclusively that she converted state money for her own use, "they do bring forth the specter of fraud," the judge said.

Mr. Petro presented evidence in July alleging that he had evidence that Mr. Noe began stealing money from the coin funds on March 31, 1998, the same day he received the first of two installments of $25 million from the state.

"The evidence as it stands now tends to show that Mr. Noe converted BWC monies and/or committed fraud," Judge Cain wrote this week in a footnote to his order. "This court is sure that through the discovery process more facts will be revealed that will have the tendency to either prove or disprove [the state's] allegations."

Monday's ruling gives Mr. Petro a five-day deadline to prove assets over $5,000 were originally purchased with state money before Mr. Noe is allowed to sell them off.

Besides the inquiry into Mr. Noe's activity, the state is suing a fund manager for $215 million in additional losses suffered by the $15.5 billion fund. That lawsuit alleged that MDLA Active Duration Fund Ltd., among other miscues, lied about exceeding limits on leveraging of fund monies.

In the wake of the fund scandal the state insurance department said it has reorganized to create a fraud and enforcement division.

Ohio Insurance Director Ann Womer Benjamin announced that she has created a fraud and enforcement division and a market regulation and licensing division out of the department's Office of Investigative and Licensing Services Division.

The fraud and enforcement unit will be headed by Robert Smith, who currently directs the department's investigation into bid-rigging and other sales-related insurance activities in Ohio.

Melissa Hull, who previously served as interim head of the Office of Investigative and Licensing Services, was named assistant director of the new Market Regulation and Licensing Division. That unit will probe company wrongdoing in the marketplace and oversee agent and agency licensing.