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Lawyer sets up solo practice, leaving mortgage case behind

By Staff | Jan 17, 2010

One of the lawyers representing the bankruptcy trustee appointed to oversee Financial Resources Mortgage Inc. is leaving the firm handling the case and is setting up a solo practice, but said his cousin’s investment in the failed mortgage company has nothing to do with that decision.

Peter N. Tamposi, a partner in the Nashua law firm of Donchess, Notinger and Tamposi, said he was unaware his cousin, Samuel A. Tamposi III, purchased four partial mortgages from Greatland Project Development Inc. two months before the collapse of FRM and its financial arm CL & M, and that the purchase has nothing to do with his departure.

“People will think what they will think,” said Tamposi who said he is not close to his cousin who he “sees at weddings and funerals,” and did not “think the investment was a conflict of interest, in any event.”

Tamposi appeared on behalf of bankruptcy trustee Steven Notinger a number of times in Belknap County Superior Court and once in Belknap County Probate Court. He is the third partner in the firm that also includes former Nashua Mayor Jim Donchess.

Greatland Project Development Inc. is one of the many investment vehicles created by Donald E. Dodge allegedly to funnel money collected by Scott David Farah to other investments as part of what the trustees claim is one of the largest Ponzi scheme in New Hampshire history.

According to four assignments of partial mortgage on record at the Belknap County Register of Deeds, Samuel A. Tamposi III bought the property at 4 Black Brook Road in Meredith on Sept. 24, 2009, by purchasing four separate assignments totaling $370,000. The property is assessed for $425,600 according to a Web site maintained by Vision Appraisal Services.

It is the position of the bankruptcy trustees that all transactions related to FRM and CL & M can be reverted to the trustees to enable them to make as fair and equal distribution of whatever assets are recovered. Tamposi said it is the trustee’s opinion that this would include his cousin’s purchase. “He is another unwitting victim,” Tamposi said.

Samuel A. Tamposi III paid $216,000 to Black Brook Realty Trust, whose trustee was Donald E. Dodge; $90,000 to the Equity Trust Co. of Florida; $53,000 to Pensco Trust of California; and $11,000 also to Pensco Trust, but for a different client.

This is the second time a relative of a key player has been caught up in the alleged financial shenanigans of Farah and Dodge.

In 2001, when he was the Director of the Department of Securities, Banking Commissioner Peter Hildreth learned one of his brothers had invested with what was then Financial Resources and Assistance of the Lakes Region Inc. after one of his investigators was looking into a complaint filed against the company.

Hildreth said he recused himself from that investigation and in November 2001 became banking commissioner. He said when FRM closed he had Deputy Commissioner Robert Fleury initiate the investigation into the abrupt closing and called his brother to see if he was still invested with FRM and Farah.

Hildreth said his brother told him he not had anything to do with Farah for years.

“I had no direct or indirect benefit,” said Hildreth. “It’s a small state.”

Tamposi said he will open his own law practice in about a week and won’t be representing the bankruptcy trustee any longer. His new offices will be at 159 Main St. in Nashua and he will continue to specialize in bankruptcy law.

Steven Notinger could not be reach for comment.

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