Hamilton, NY (AP) – For decades, Miles Burt Marshall was the man you went to see in the New York Upytate Strip if you had the money to invest, but you wanted it to stay local.
While working from the office in the charming village of Hamilton, the Marshal prepared taxes and sold insurance on the road from Colgate University. He also took money for what was sometimes called the “8% Foundation”, which guaranteed so many annual interests, no matter what happened to the financial markets.
His customers give the word to family and friends. Do you have an egg of a pension nest? Let the spell handle it. He will invest him in local rental objects and your money will grow faster than the bank.
Marshal was friendly and folk. He gave gift bags with maple syrup, pickled cucumbers and local honey in jars marked with cute sayings such as: “Don’t be juice. Call Marshall for proper insurance insurance.”
“He will tell you about all the other people who are investing. Church invests. Fire companies invest. Doctors invest,” said one client, Christine Corrigan. “So you think,” Well, they are smart people. They wouldn’t do it if it weren’t good to do … Why would you be suspicious? “
Then everything collapsed.
According to the trustee’s applications, Marshall was owed nearly 1,000 people and organizations with the main and interest rates of approximately $ 95 million. USD and interest.
This summer, a 73 -year -old businessman was accused of accusations that his investment business was a Ponzi scheme. If he is convicted, he may face prison time.
Marshal’s lawyers refused to comment.
The general losses of Marshall investors are not included in the Ponzi scheme of a billion dollars founded by Bernie Madoff. However, they are large in a small city of college with about 6,400 people, and in its surroundings in the countryside.
Many investors were professors, workers, office workers or retirees at Colgate professors. Some have lost their life savings to tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars. Corrigan and her husband, who owns a restaurant for 30 miles (48 kilometers) to the east, owed about $ 1.5 million.
Now they are wondering how someone who seemed so reliable, who hosted annual parties to their customers and even called them during their birthdays can betray their confidence.
“You look at life differently when it happens. It looks like, ‘Who do you trust?,” Said Dennis Sullivan, who owed about $ 40,000. “Sad about what he did to the territory.”
Reliable local entrepreneur
Marshal and his wife lived in the brick Victorian part, caught up in his office. In addition to insurance and tax preparation, he rented more than 100 real estate objects and owned the storage business and printing house.
His parents in the area carried out an insurance and real estate business, and the Marshal’s name was respected on the spot.
Although he withdrew from college, he was a federal tax specialist. For many, he seemed to be aware of money and managed a neat office.
“He had a French door and a beautiful carpet and a big table, and it looked like a thriving and reliable,” Corrigan said.
In the 1980s, the Marshal started consuming money from people to buy and retain the rental real estate. People recovered the notes of bills of exchange – sheets of paper with the amount of the dollar inscribed. The withdrawals could be made by reporting about 30 days. People could choose to pay regular interest.
Participants considered operations as investments. The Marshal called them loans.
For many years, Marshall has made a good promise to pay interest and removal. More people were involved as a spread of the word. Sullivan remembers his parents gave Marshal’s money, then he did, then his fiancé, then his fiancé’s daughter, then his son and even his snowmobile club.
“Everyone gets involved in a snowball,” said Sullivan.
Many investors lived in other states but had contacts with the district.
In the 1980s, the 8% return promise was unique, which is a time of higher interest rates. But later it divorced when the prices fell. Marshal told bankruptcy proceedings that he thought his real estate would be more than paying debts.
“Now it’s obviously wrong,” he said, according to applications, “but that is how I always thought.”
Calculating with a debt of over $ 90 million
The money stopped flowing until 2023.
Marshall provided the bankruptcy protection of Chapter 11, which was announced in April more than $ 90 million. USD and $ 21.5 million.
In the application, he explained that he was admitted to a hospital for a “serious heart disease”, which required two surgeries costing $ 600,000. When the knowledge of his illness spread, the holders of the remarks demanded the return of money.
Bankruptcy Trust Freddie Stevens accused Marshal for insolvency of incompetent business practices and borrowing from people at higher rates. The trustee stated that by 2011 Marshal used new investment money to pay previous investors, which is a sign of the Ponzi system.
Prosecutors claim that Marshall falsefully reflected the profitability of their real estate business and had their employees to generate “operations summaries” with fake information on account balances and earned interest.
The money was introduced to his other business and he spent hundreds of thousands of investors dollars on personal expenses, including airline travel, Meals out, food and yoga studies, prosecutors say.
Marshal customers feel betrayed.
“We left him so that he accumulated. Well, he accumulated in his pocket,” Barbara Baltusnik said of his investment.
Effect of the pulsation of several million dollars
Marshal in June Admitted to innocent charges of fraud for large larvae and securities. He is accused of stealing more than $ 50 million.
Marshall houses and real estate objects were sold as part of the bankruptcy proceedings that continue. People who gave their money to Marshall to recover about 5.4 cents per dollar from the sale of property. According to the trustee, there are potential claims for financial institutions.
The Baltusnik said she had hundreds of thousands of dollars with her husband, and now she wonders how she would pay the doctor’s accounts. After losing investment, Sullivan’s mother moved with him.
Epworth, Georgia, a retired Carolyn Call will never see the money that she expected to increase its social security benefits. She learned about Marshal, though her uncle, who lived in New York.
“I just can pay the bills and continue,” she said. “Nothing extravagant. No trips. I can’t do anything for grandparents.”
