On Thursday, public officials raced to distance themselves from Vermont native Bill Stenger and Miami businessman Ariel Quiros after federal and state investigators accused the men of running a Ponzi-like scheme. They bilked foreign investors in massive Northeast Kingdom development projects, regulators allege in lawsuits.
Yet for years, seemingly everyone in Vermont, from governors and senators to NEK residents, embraced the men. Stenger and Quiros promised to bring ski resorts, hotels, a conference center, a biotech plant, offices and stores to an economically depressed area. Who could resist?
This compilation of public statements illustrates the meteoric rise and abrupt downfall of a scheme that was, regulators now allege, too good to be true.
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This is much more than a Northern Vermont problem once again with all the financial regulation we have in the country ( the barn door was left open and the cow marched right out). With all the abuse in this sector we read about fines and very little jail time right now we are reading stories about how SAC is once again not only not going to jail but actually being allowed to run money. 5 billion dollar fines and no jail time outrageous , we seemed to have learned nothing from the Madoff catastrophe. To me it seems the jobs of regulators and government is to protect a way of life, it is like a closed club of elites protecting each others back and trading jobs and opportunities . These type of events scream out for term limits ,once you are in the club you do everything you can to stay in this club the benefits and life style are enormous. I have been saying for years we would get much better results if the elected officials could not have lifetime careers. 28 years is plenty 8 years in the house 12 years in the senate 8 years of being the president. Only federal pension & healthcare for the Pres.& VP all the others would get benefits if the states that elected them wanted to give them benefits but nothing from the federal government. We the people are really not doing our part the elites know it and fight to protect their privileged private clubs.