The wake of the FRM Ponzi scheme collapse has created some complex and life-changing legal issues.
Bob Sanders of the New Hampshire Business Review has written a startling piece about the continuing–and unexpected–fallout from the Financial Resources Mortgage ponzi scheme.
“The bankrupt estate of Financial Resources Mortgage Inc. – the Meredith company behind a multimillion-dollar Ponzi scheme – has been suing hundreds of the people who were victimized by the swindle for whatever FRM-related assets they may still have. In many cases, the victims are settling, forking over thousands more dollars in order to get on with their lives.
Jim Donchess, an attorney and law partner of trustee Steven Notinger, said the trustee is trying to fairly distribute the estate equally.
‘The simplest, cheapest and fairest thing is to bring all of the assets into the estate and liquidate it on a prorated basis,’ said Donchess. ‘Everyone should be treated the same.'”
Throughout the story, Sanders weaves in tales of the trustee crashing a victim’s bankruptcy proceeding, FRM foreclosing on properties even as the scheme faced imminent collapse, and seemingly smart investments gone sour in the aftermath. And as the piece reveals, a complicated case just got much more so.
“New Hampshire pays Michael Bergeron to be a full-time thief, sending him across the border in an unmarked black sedan to poach Massachusetts companies.
To help keep his missions undercover, the business recruiter even scraped the New Hampshire state seal off his Ford Fusion.”
It’s the cloak and dagger behind “the New Hampshire Advantage.” Continue Reading →
Installing solar panels on a roof in New Hampshire.
As the economy continues to limp along toward recovery, “green jobs” has become a buzz phrase, often tossed out as a panacea for our economic ails. But compared to the rest of the nation, New Hamphire’s share of this sector doesn’t exactly stand out.
In a study released earlier this month, researchers found that from 2003 to 2010, New Hampshire’s green jobs industry grew at an average of 3.5 percent a year, outpacing the rest of New England. But the result of that growth was lackluster. Only two percent of the state’s workforce holds down a green job, which places New Hampshire square in the middle of the national average.
Put another way: New Hampshire is less of a green economy leader than other states, and more like a student who just manages to raise their “D” grade to a “C” in the last weeks of the semester.
There’s a new trend among the water-conscious. At least, that’s what the people at Maine-based startup Blue Reserve believe. Avery Yale Kamila of The Portland Press Herald reports the company is offering a customers a bottle-free, super-filtered fresh water system. The idea of going bottleless is to cut-out bisphenol-A, or BPA, a chemical found in a lot of hard plastics, and which some states and countries have
Earl-What I Saw / Flickr
Blue Reserve promises to cut water bottle waste, BPA, chlorine, and fluoride.
banned due to estrogen-mimicking and carcinogenic qualities.
One of the places Blue Reserve is looking to expand is New Hampshire. Continue Reading →
In an earlier version of this post, our photo caption described Portland, Maine as Bull Moose’s “original stomping grounds.” The company actually opened its first store in Brunswick, Maine. We regret the error.
The fate of prime strip mall real estate in New England might not be sealed just yet. The hallowed halls of Borders Books stores aren’t even, well…hollow, and another bookseller is looking at swooping in. Instead of a national chain like Books-A-Million, the prospective buyer is Portland-based (and Rooseveltian-named) Bull Moose, according to the Bangor Daily News. Reporter Matt Wickenheiser quotes Bull Moose founder Brett Wickard as saying the chain’s, “bidding on a handful of leases, all in New England.” Continue Reading →
After years of hanging together with the civil engineering equivalent of duct tape and hope, Memorial Bridge, connecting Portsmouth to Kittery, Maine, is finally closed for good. At least as far as drivers are concerned, anyway. The New Hampshire Department of Transportation has been keeping its fingers crossed, hoping the 88-year old bridge would hold up under the weight of vehicle traffic for just one more year. But the results of a recent safety inspection put the kybosh to that idea. In a story for Foster’s Daily Democrat, Scott Kinney gives a rundown of the wear-and-tear:
“Among the inadequacies of the failing bridge are 10 gusset plates DOT lead inspector Dave Powelson described as “in critical need” and another 10 that were of concern. Gusset plates are thick sheets of steel used to connect beams and girders to columns or to connect truss members and are integral to bridge’s ability to bear weight.”
Memorial Bridge is one of three main routes running between Kittery and Portsmouth. The two economies are heavily integrated, especially with the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard located in Kittery. And Memorial Bridge is popular mainly for the easy access it provides to the outlet stores in Kittery. Pedestrians and bicyclists will still be able to cross the bridge–presumably without engaging in the nervous weight-limit calculus of passengers squished into an overcrowded elevator. In the meantime, Kinney reports construction on a new bridge could be moved up to late November, rather than next July as planned. In the meantime, he quotes Portsmouth Mayor Tom Ferrini on possible the possible economic effects of the closure,
“This afternoon’s news about the status of the bridge made protecting the jobs it creates no less vital, but made the need for its replacement far more urgent…We cannot risk any future delays hindering the replacement of the Memorial Bridge and jeopardizing local jobs.”
cmh2315fl / Flickr
After 88 years, the rickety old Memorial Bridge is set for demolition--sooner rather than later.
In his blog for the Concord Monitor, Ben Leubsdorf reports that Borders has pounded the last nail into the coffin of its Fort Eddy store. It looks like rival Books-A-Million won’t be taking over the strip mall space after all. So big-box bookstore devotees will have to go farther afield to take advantage of three-for-the-price-of-two sales on trade paperbacks.
Emily Carlin / Flickr
NH Borders fans will either have to switch to local indie book stores to get their fix, or make longer trips to rival chains
Isaacson Structural Steel is one of the North Country's major employers.
Lawsuits, leins and accusations are flying. But more importantly to people in the North Country–and New Hampshire as a whole–Sanders writes,
“The Berlin area’s unemployment rate was 8.8 percent in May, compared to the statewide rate of 4.8. If all of Isaacson’s workers were added to the rolls, that rate would shoot up to about 10.5 percent.”
According to Sanders, Isaacson employs 160 people.
If this little guy looks familiar to you, it's thanks in large part to Betty and Barney Hill, who helped make the gray alien image iconic. This figure stands at the entrance of the Red Planet Diner in Sedona, CA.
If you haven’t heard of Betty and Barney Hill, you either weren’t born–or very old–before the 1960’s, or you’re not terribly interested in (alleged) alien abductions.
I promise, this really (might) have to do with business.
Anyway, the Hills were a Portsmouth couple who were driving through the White Mountains in 1961 when they claimed to have seen a cigar-shaped UFO. They said they were abducted, poked, and prodded by gray aliens. When the story got out in 1965, it was the first “widely-reported” alien abduction in American history.
And now, Lee Speigel of the Huffington Post reports the state has put up an historical marker near the Indian Head Resort to commemorate the (alleged) event.
So is this a bid to draw Roswell enthusiasts and other True Believers to the Granite State?
Happy campers at Boy Scouts' Camp Wanocksett in the Nashua Valley.
New England’s summer camp-dotted forests have long been an economic staple of the region’s tourism industry. But The New York Times has found that instead of loading up the kids in the mini-van for the trek into the dark reaches of the Northern Forest, some jet-setters (and their kids) are living up to the name. And it’s been a boon for a number of small airports from New Hampshire to Maine.
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