NASHUA – A bright, hard-to-miss electronic sign on Amherst Street is likely catching more eyes these days, but it has nothing to do with low interest rates.

The sign is being used to hurl accusations of corruption against a huge swath of New Hampshire government.

“I put this (the messages) on my signs because … this state is more corrupt than the people who are going to jail for organized crime,” said Michael Gill, the president of The Mortgage Specialists and the owner of the sign in front of 327 Amherst St., one of four company offices.

Gill said signs at his other three offices, in Manchester, Plaistow and Somersworth, bear similar messages.

He programmed the signs, Gill said, because government officials “refuse to do something” and “want me to shut up. I won’t shut up.”

The messages, in bright orange, red and blue, accuse the state Banking Department, the Attorney General’s Office, the judicial systems and judges, select high-profile lawyers and
“multiple politicians” of being corrupt.

The sign also accuses the Banking Department of running a Ponzi scheme, the attorney general’s office of a cover up and Gov. Maggie Hassan of having her “eyes closed” to the problems.

Gill, who has run The Mortgage Specialists for 23 years and is considered one of the largest mortgage providers in the state, launched into state officials on Thursday when a reporter asked him about his motive for creating the accusatory messages.

“The law firms are the criminals,” Gill began.

His sweeping indictment accuses attorneys and judges of covering up the alleged corruption he insists is widespread, and faults “the boards and committees set up to do something” for “not doing anything about it.”

Gill’s accusations likely stem from a deteriorating relationship with state and other government officials that began in 2008, when his company was fined $425,000 by the state Banking Department. The department accused the company of illegal activity that included forging signatures and destroying records.

Banking Department spokesman Richard Arcand said Thursday that department officials are aware that Gill has posted the messages, but said he couldn’t comment on whether Gill is under investigation.

“I know there’s been legal action in the past, but I’m not personally familiar with that action,” Arcand said. He noted that records involving Gill and The Mortgage Specialists that are public are posted on the department’s website.

The documents include more than two dozen orders involving The Mortgage Specialists, split roughly equally between two time frames – July 2008-June 2009 and April-November.

The earlier group list Gill and three other individuals as defendants, while those from 2013 list Gill’s name alone.

The most recent ruling, issued Sept. 17, 2013, granted the Banking Department a default judgement, based on the fact that Gill and his attorney walked out of court during the proceedings, according to the document.

The Mortgage Specialists was fined a total of $8,000, while Gill personally was fined a total of $5,000, the documents state.

Other accusations Gill leveled on Thursday targeted Banking Commissioner Glenn A. Perlow and his predecessor, Ronald A. Wilbur, both of whom Gill claims were, or are, involved in the overall “coverup” by “members of the club.”

Gill also insisted “I was the one” who brought the “FRM Ponzi scheme” to the attention of the attorney general’s office, referring to the Financial Resources Mortgage scandal in which scores of investors were bilked out of various amounts of money.

Gill went as far as to suggest some state officials, including former banking commissioner Peter Hildreth, had knowledge of the scandal and were involved in covering up the wrongdoing.

Hildreth was found to have mishandled the FRM scandal, but then-Gov. John Lynch and the Executive Council allowed Hildreth to retire rather than remove him from office.

Gill said the hearing in which that decision was made was “bogus,” claiming that Lynch and the councilors agreed to let Hildreth retire “because Hildreth told them ‘if I go to jail, you all go with me.’?”

Marc Goldberg, spokesman for Gov. Maggie Hassan, said Hassan’s office received two communications from Gill in August and one more since.

“We referred him to the Department of Justice and to the state Supreme Court attorney discipline office,” Goldberg said of the August communications.

They did nothing with the third piece, he said, because the governor was merely copied on the letter, which was addressed to the Department of Revenue Administration.

Gill’s accusations even cover his tax returns, some of which he claimed “were forged,” without being more specific. He did say that he could prove it because “it was notarized by one of the top experts in the country.”

“Hey, maybe I’m crazy,” he said at one point. “But nobody is suing me. If I’m wrong, show me, tell me where I’m wrong.

“I’ll show you where I’m right.”

Gill also harbors resentment over some aspect of how his divorce was handled, saying at one point in his Thursday interview that the state’s corruption “goes way beyond my divorce.”

Gill said his desire for New Hampshire residents “to take this state back” motivated him to put the messages on his signs.

“I put it there to let you know, to let the TV and newspapers who aren’t picking this (story) up know … what’s going on.

“I want people to ask questions.”

Staff reporter Joseph G. Cote contributed material to this story. He can be reached at 594-6415 or jcote@nashuatelegraph.com. Dean Shalhoup can be reached at 594-6443 or dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com. Also, follow Shalhoup on Twitter (@Telegraph_DeanS).

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