Interesting article in the River Reporter about the latest on Barriger. The link is below.
For those of you who aren't familiar with Gaffken-Barriger, they are a private investment company here in Sullivan County, that specialized in higher risk loans, with a high interest rate.
Well, when the market began to tank, numerous mortgagers defaulted, including a Florida based company, which had borrowed over ten million.
Those who had invested in the fund are insisting that they were "guaranteed" an eight percent return, and are quite upset, that not only are they not getting a return, the principle is gone as well. An investigation continues, but no criminal charges have been filed, and from what I hear, they are not expected.
It is rather sad. I met with an older couple last month, who must sell their house and move in with their daughter because they invested their life savings with the fund.
But I suppose this is a prime example of caveat emptor. With all the fast talking that I'm sure went on to convince people to invest, there must have been some fine print somewhere that this was a possibility. This was no Ponzi scheme, although I'm sure that is little solace for those who have lost their shirts.
http://www.riverreporter.com/issues/09-04-02/head2-invest.html
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