New Hampshire’s Attorney General office has asked a Superior Court judge to extend the ruling that lets state banking officials take control of Noble Trust Company.
State officials temporarily took control of the Manchester based trust earlier in the week.
They’ve asked the court to secure the trust’s assets for another 30 days to keep them firmly in place.
New Hampshire Public Radio’s David Darman has more.
Bank Commissioner Peter Hildreth alleges that Noble Trust Company officials violated a litany of laws and regulations.
Noble trust company and its director and president Colin Lindsey made false statements, uh, has made false statements and is continuing to make false statements and entries onto the books of the company for the purposes of deceiving customers, creditors and the department.
Noble officials, says Hildreth, also didn’t report to state regulators when they were supposed to.
But perhaps Noble’s biggest offense was not admitting that it lost 15 million dollars on an investment that ended up being worthless.
That investment was made in an outfit called “Sierra Factoring LLC”.
The president of Noble trust not only allegedly hid it’s losses in Sierra Factoring, but the Banking Commissioner says the company compounded the falsehood by not telling investors about the losses.
In fact, commissioner Hildreth says Noble officials compounded things even more by making the investment seem quite normal.
They had clients, and in at least one case they made payments on an investment that was worthless. And they made payments to clients with the intent we would say to make them think that investment had some value.
State officials say they have taken over Noble Trust to save that whatever assets may be left.
Their fear is that since Noble Trust has a Kansas office, assets could be transferred there, beyond the reach of New Hampshire regulators.
Now that the state is in control, the attorney general’s office says they don’t know how many people have been affected by Noble’s practices.
Senior Assistant Attorney General Peter Roth (Rothe) says it is also way too early to say if investors will ever get any of their money back.
I can’t really say….i don’t want to say no there’ no chance. I don’t want to say there is a chance. It’s difficult to know at this point because there’s still a lot to investigate and find out.
State officials say they’re looking to wind down the affairs of Noble Trust.
They say they’re also looking to sell all the assets, to help pay Noble’s creditors and investors.
Noble president Colin Lindsey’s attorney did not return phone calls for this story.
