Attorney General Eliot Spitzer today announced settlements with four additional financial institutions in connection with widespread telecommunications fraud involving NorVergence, Inc., a bankrupt New Jersey-based telecommunications company.
Under the terms of the newly announced agreements, BB&T Leasing Company, Interchange Bank, R-G Crown Bank (d/b/a Crown Bank Leasing), and National Penn Leasing Company, will forgive $2.8 million (90% of the balances on outstanding leases) in payments due from 111 New York customers, who signed long-term contracts with NorVergence ....
... rest of press release gives the sordid Norvergence history we all know so well and lists various other leasing companies who've joined in the write-offs, as well as a few who still haven't ...
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may be power, but communications is the key snipped-for-privacy@panix.com [to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded]
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I'll tell you, it really feels good to see all those stupid, sleazy financial houses having to get their noses rubbed in their own messes, doesn't it? They all thought they were
_so_ smart, that they could rely on that 'holder in due course' argument and force everyday business people to have to pay for
_their_ mistakes in not evaluating the paper they were agreeing to take on. I wonder how many salesmen (in that business, a 'salesman' is the person who brings in new business to the company) who were originally rewarded with fancy dinners and bonuses for the 'great new account' they brought the company (in this case Norvergence was their client) have since been fired and sent packing for in effect causing the house to have to write off millions of dollars at the government's 'request' to avoid getting sued -- same as the house would have sued the poor debtor who stood up for his rights had not the government gone to bat for them. I hope they learned from this lesson, and I hope at least a few will go under from the write offs they had to take. PAT]