For Immediate Release
May 10, 2010
Contact: Kevin Smith
Phone: (603) 571-4710
Email: director@nhcornerstone.org
CONCORD, NH – Following weekend reports shedding new allegations on the scandal involving Financial Resources Mortgage, Inc. of Meredith, NH, Cornerstone-Action is calling on the Legislative Review Committee that has been assigned to investigate the matter to appoint an independent counsel to investigate the role that the Attorney General’s Office, the Banking Department, the Executive Branch, and Bureau of Securities Regulation (BSR) each played in the matter.
Despite that the state Attorney General’s Office is set to release its report on the matter this week, over the weekend, out-going BSR Director, Mark Connolly, again sounded the alarm that the Attorney General’s Office is part of the problem as to why this ponzi scheme was allowed to occur for as long as it had. After having initially stated that the Attorney General’s Office was not a ‘disinterested party’ in the matter, in addition to his report last month calling for an “inspector general’s office” in matters where the AG’s Office is implicated, Connelly stated on this past Sunday’s edition of Close-Up, on WMUR, that the Attorney General’s Office “had every indication that this thing was fraud” and then went on to say that he does not know why they failed to take action. In addition, Connelly stated that he believes it was the Attorney General’s Office mission over the last few months to “mitigate the liability to the state.”
Because of Mr. Connelly’s latest allegations, today, Cornerstone-Action Director, Kevin Smith, called on the ranking members of the Legislative Review Committee assigned to this matter, including Sens. Hassan and Bragdon, along with Reps. Butler and Headd, to appoint a special counsel to investigate the matter, independent of the Attorney General’s investigation.
Commenting was Cornerstone-Action’s, Kevin Smith: “It has become increasing clear that not only should the Attorney General’s Office not be investigating a matter which directly involves its own agency, but that they may be one of the culpable parties as to why this tragedy, in which citizens lost millions of dollars, was not handled sooner than it should have been. The public deserves an unbiased party to investigate and report on the role that each office within the Executive Branch played. To ensure the public’s trust, appointing an independent counsel to investigate this matter would seem to us to be the prudent thing to do at this time.”
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CPR-Action is the legislative advocacy arm of Cornerstone Policy Research.
Cornerstone Policy Research is a non-partisan, non-profit research and education organization dedicated to the preservation of strong families, limited government and free markets.
