Stop us if you’ve heard this one before
Posted on August 31, 2009 at 10:29 pmIn the name of the Savior, dude rakes in “investment” funding from the faithful. In solemn stewardship, another guy acts as a “brother in God” to “take care” of his clients’ financial needs. With a certain former employee of a local brokerage firm, here we go again:
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) announced today that … it has permanently barred two brokers for running multi-million-dollar Ponzi schemes that victimized a wide range of investors — including elderly individuals, mentally and physically impaired individuals, church members and even family friends….
FINRA also barred William Walter Spencer, Sr., of Franklin, TN, who “borrowed” nearly $2 million from elderly members of his church and from customers of his employing broker-dealer, Wiley Bros. - Aintree Capital, LLC….
[F]rom December 1997 to May 2008, Spencer induced investors to invest in promissory notes falsely promising rates of return 10 to 12 percent higher than rates available on traditional investments. In all, there were 234 such transactions and 80 percent of the investors were elderly members of his church community who had previously invested their funds in certificates of deposit or savings accounts. FINRA found that Spencer knew at the time that he procured the loans that he did not have the liquid assets or ongoing income necessary to pay the interest and return the principal to the investors. Spencer failed to repay many of the individuals as promised and used the proceeds of new loans to satisfy existing loans.
All of the individuals from whom Spencer borrowed funds were of modest means. For example, one customer was a 62-year-old school bus driver for special needs children who loaned Spencer $60,000 after her husband’s death. Spencer used the loan to repay other customers.
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Four local firms bidding for Ohio hospital
Posted on at 3:14 pm
After rejecting previous bids from LifePoint Hospitals and Quorum earlier this summer, the board of Brown County General Hospital east of Cincinnati has now received four purchase or lease offers — all from Nashville-area players. LifePoint and QHR — a Community Health Systems division — are still in the mix and have been joined by Essent Healthcare and management firm Brim Healthcare.
Earlier this year, CHS and fellow locals Capella Healthcare had indicated an interest in taking over the 60-bed hospital.
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Shakeup at Cumulus Nashville
Posted on at 2:59 pmAaron Roberts, program director for WRQQ and WNFN — the latter of which recently changed its format to Top 40 — has been laid off by Cumulus Broadcasting to cut costs and Market Manager Mark Kanak has left his post to move to Tampa.
Affordable housing development drying up
Posted on at 11:57 am
Because big money-losing investors like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are no longer interested in buying tax credits hawked by low-income housing developers, projects across the country are on hold.
Census data show about 3 million affordable apartments were destroyed, converted to for-sale condos or upgraded to higher-priced rentals during the last six years. At the same time, more than half of all renters are spending at least 30 percent of their before-tax income on housing, up from 40 percent in 2000.
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Gaylord’s magic partner
Posted on at 11:41 amDallas Morning News columnist Cheryl Hall profiles CorporateMagic Inc. boss Jim Kirk — aka Captain Kirk — who co-owns the $20 million event staging company with Gaylord Entertainment.
“The challenge with Jim is containment,” says Bill Lively, who hired CorporateMagic to produce all the North Texas Super Bowl XLV Host Committee events. “He’s got enormous, wonderful, distinctive ideas – that are also expensive. The problem is synthesizing Jim’s 4 billion brilliant ideas into one model that’s workable for your project that you can afford. If you can do that, you’re in great shape.”
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My guess is most of Main Street agrees
Posted on at 10:19 amA group of economists says there is no need for a second stimulus package and that the government should cut back on spending.
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A new plan for Fritch
Posted on at 7:17 amHealthSpring CEO Herb Fritch has signed on for a new 10b5-1 trading plan to gradually trim his stake in the health insurer (Ticker: HS). The shares must be sold above $14.02.
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Gigi’s expanding to the ‘Boro
Posted on at 7:08 am
For those of you keeping up with cupcake mania: A pair of sisters are working toward a fall opening of a Gigi’s Cupcake outpost across the street from the Avenue shopping center of I-24 in Murfreesboro.
Ruby Tuesday must pay $10M in assault case
Posted on at 6:57 amA Rutherford County jury has ruled that the restaurant chain needs to pay more than $10 million to a customer who was attacked by a fellow patron after the latter had been served oodles of booze. Local attorney George Nolan of Leader Bulso Nolan & Burnstein helped represent plaintiff Dan Maddy, whose complaint is available here.
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Happy birthday, Cracker Barrel – Here’s some CNBC love
Posted on at 6:47 am
Cracker Barrel marks its 40th birthday next month. That, along with a well-performing stock (Ticker: CBRL) this year, gave CNBC’s Fast Money crew an excuse to chat with Chairman, President and CEO Michael Woodhouse and praise his team’s work.
He’s got room to move prices up… I think they can continue to do that… They continue to do well because they offer value and that’s what the consumer wants.
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Wanted: Health care innovators
Posted on at 6:36 am
The team at Healthspottr Media has begun taking nominations for fellowship that will provide up to $250,000 for ideas that will make a “genuinely innovative contribution to the transformation of healthcare in the United States.”
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AIG boss: We’ll wait till the price is right
Posted on August 28, 2009 at 12:23 pmNew American International Group CEO Robert Benmosche says the insurance giant will take its time selling various divisions — including American General, which employs 1,000 in Brentwood.
“That kind of price talk is ridiculous,” he said, without specifying what he considers a fair price. “I’ve told the government that if we have to sell them right now, we may not be able to pay back what we owe.”
That’s the kind of talk AIG investors have quickly come to like: Shares of the company (TIcker: AIG) have more than tripled since he took the helm less than a month ago.
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First Tennessee shuffling leadership
Posted on at 11:54 am
Josh Flory checks in with some interesting management news from First Tennessee. The bank has lured King Purnell, a former SunTrust regional president, to lead its commercial real estate line of business statewide, a new approach that bank leaders say complements the market-based org chart the bank has long used.
“We’ll have very focused attention on (each) line of business,” [Charles Burkett] said. “These are the businesses that we want to be in, that we want to grow, we want to support, and it gets our people servicing customers in those segments with additional focus on it.”
SEE ALSO: Naomi Snyder with the corresponding Nashville news that ends up with Mike Edwards in Memphis and Doyle Rippee in charge of Middle Tennessee.
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Genesco positioned to grab market share
Posted on at 10:57 amAfter Genesco’s well-received Q2 earnings, Avondale analyst David Turner says the Nashville-based shoe and hat retailer has several good things going for it.
Multiple cost items, including occupancy which accounts for roughly one-third of GCO’s cost structure, are subtly moving in the company’s favor… Genesco’s dynamic revenue model (dominant concepts focusing on lucrative demographics, supported by a strong vendor base) paves the way for the company to continue to carve out market share gains.
Shares of Genesco (Ticker: GCO), which Turner rates ‘market outperform,’ are taking a small breather after their big day yesterday.
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Good credit card history? Don’t matter much
Posted on at 10:36 amA recent study by credit scoring firm FICO showed that 24 million people without “new risk triggers in their credit reports” had their credit limits slashed from last October until April.
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