KM Neighbor speaks to Fox61:
EXCLUSIVE: Neighbors shaken by arrest of Kent Mawhinney
Excellent summary!
One of the many things I find baffling about this Sturbridge Project is that The Savings Bank of Danbury described in its motion that Fd had 'no equity' in the project. Perhaps the 'Friend Loans' are the equity in the deal? IDK. Very curious if those 'Friend Loans' were ever funded!?!?!?
Mmmm.
Construction lending in CT has long been in the doldrums IMO and never really recovered from the time of the financial collapse. Lending standards are conservative so to see a 'no equity' spec development deal from a small bank like The Savings Bank of Danbury or even a multimillion dollar loan deal at People's Bank in Bridgeport really has me scratching my head as to what is going on at each of these lending institutions as both have FDIC insurance I believe!
No money down, dollar and a dream real estate loans went the way of the dodo ages ago and so to see them offered up to the likes of Fd who was in the middle of a contentious divorce with an uncertain financial future, no State taxes filed for 2 years by all accounts, no Federal taxes filed for 2 years by all accounts and ongoing civil litigation is for the most part the trifecta required for a loan denial. YET, we don't see this at all. Nope, we see 2 local banks lending to the tune of nearly $7 million dollars. HOW? WHY? and ON WHAT BASIS?
Frankly, People's Bank in Bridgeport is a repeat player here IMO with Fd as we go back to the 123 Hunter situation with MT, GV and Fd AND SUE MORIN who was deposed about the matter in Family Court and took the 5th.
I do very much wonder what is going on here at both of these banks as based on virtually any lending standard I can imagine for commercial construction lending the Sturbridge project makes zero sense. How was Fd able to remove the contribution of the land from the deal upfront (he paid $1.5 million at auction for the property if I recall) and then fund both hard and soft costs via The Savings Bank of Danbury? WHO was responsible for this loan and I do very much wonder if there was perhaps other connections at play here perhaps at Senior Levels that bear investigation IMO. Even established builders in lower Fairfield County who do beautiful work don't have the ability to do deals with no equity and deals are typically hard costs only too. Little here with this loan or the People's Bank loans makes sense.
I do wonder why we aren't seeing People's Bank entering the litigation fray here either. I find this quite odd given the circumstances and the high probability that their loans are non performing at the moment too. What is also quite interesting is that my recollection is that People's Bank actively uses the firm Pullman & Comley (of which Anne Dranginis (GF atty) is a Partner I believe). So, perhaps Atty Dranginis might pop in and have a chat with one of her colleagues that handles some of the People's Bank legal work as perhaps they aren't aware that they have a non performing loan on their books (BTW I don't believe they don't know, I just don't know why they don't seem to be doing anything via the Courts to protect their position and effect collection).
Its officially a mess and the race to the courthouses in CT to register claims seems to be underway.
What I am interested in finding out is if there was fraudulent activity involved in any of the loans and were loan proceeds used to pay legal fees and/or other creditors? It all seems like a giant 'kite' IMO where Fd was on an ongoing quest for more loan proceeds which would be used to pay other creditors and it just kept rolling until it stopped (or maybe it hasn't stopped!?!). Here is a simple conceptual explanation of this process of kiting:
Check kiting Definition | Bankrate.com. Quick visual is that you are taking $ from Peter to pay Paul and on and on.
IMO what Fd did as he didn't have ongoing income is simply borrow more in order to pay interest. At a certain point this was no longer possible which is why the Sturbridge loan interest went unpaid and my guess is that funds that would have been used by Fd to pay interest, taxes etc. were instead used to pay the good folks of Pattisville who were of more immediate importance to Fd.
I wish Atty Weinstein had gotten to the bottom of the legal fee payment questions in Civil Court. I know he made progress but to see all this cash swirling around with basic financial obligations now in default has me believing that the funds were all diverted to paying Pattisville and PI. Too bad the banks weren't quicker to shut it all down IMO (but I have questions as to why they didn't too as this was no exercise in differential equations IMO)!
We see Fd with huge credit card balances (unsecured so far as we know) that oddly have remained 'current' in status. How is this so? We see Fd using other collateral loan options to gain access to sizeable sums? What collateral was used and did it belong to Fd or was it put up by others?
My guess is that JFd saw the beginnings of all these Fd financial games and her attorney and their PI IMO no doubt had it pretty much squared away in advance in terms of understanding it all during the period just prior to her disappearance as the court hearing I believe was originally scheduled for the week or 2 after her disappearance. MONEY AND CUSTODY were clearly at issue way back in May, 2019. Nothing in this regard has changed and its 1/20!
Fd IMO lit himself and FORE on fire and poured on gasoline to bring it all to the ground. I'm still not convinced that we understand why it was all done though?
MOO
