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Friday, July 10, 2020

“UNCLEAN HANDS” Milking The Cash Cow For Fun & Profit



In my opinion, there were no legitimate business reasons for Mark Noss to assume repayment of Steven Ingersoll's $950,000 delinquent Traverse City State Bank line of credit debt...but a steaming pile of illegitimate ones.

The Traverse City State Bank line of credit was arranged by Steven Ingersoll in 2007. 

Ingersoll pledged his 12% management fee from the Grand Traverse Academy, in addition to other business assets and a personal guarantee of repayment. 

According to Dan Stahl’s February 27, 2012 “Line of Credit Renewal Analysis”, the line of credit was initially used solely at the Grand Traverse Academy. The scope was later expanded, enabling Ingersoll to use the money in Bay City and for other non-school-related development projects. 

The balance was down to $0 in between March-May 2011—but less than one year later, Stahl’s analysis revealed Ingersoll’s “average balance YTD” was a whopping $989,825. 

Ingersoll asserted to Stahl that he used $756,000 from Traverse City State Bank line of credit in Bay City, during the renovation of the Bay City Academy. 

However, in a January 17, 2013 email to Stahl, Ingersoll claimed he intended to pay the delinquent line of credit debt down with “tax credit” monies derived from the Bay City Academy project. 
In the email shown above, Ingersoll claimed that Stahl knew he was using the line of credit money “temporarily” for the Bay City project, and was aware that the delinquent amount would be repaid when the tax credits came in, or later sold. 

But here’s the thing: although Ingersoll was awarded $1,523,071 in tax credits by the Michigan Economic Growth Authority (MEGA) Board between 2010 and 2011, those credits were refundable only to a business's Michigan Business Tax liability, and only after meeting significant benchmarks. 

In addition, Ingersoll would have submitted a request for a tax credit certificate to the Michigan Strategic Fund (MSF) after his business (the Bay City Academy's Madison Arts campus) had met the MEGA tax credit agreement requirements related to capital investments and the number of jobs created and/or retained.

No publicly-available record exists supporting Ingersoll's assertion that he had been awarded “Brownfield tax credits”, which could have been resold.

Ingersoll was awarded $1,523,071 in tax credits by the MEGA Board between 2010 and 2011: 

December 22, 2010: Swarts Tower, LLC: $400,000; 
108 Linn Street 

March 22, 2011: Madison Arts, LLC $332,750; 400 N. Madison Avenue 

September 29, 2011: Oddfellows Hall, LLC $161,571; 1900 Broadway 

October 27, 2011: Wolverine Arts LLC $393,750; 114 N. Jackson Street 

December 15, 2011: Historic Arlington Hotel LLC $200,000; 201 Linn Street 

December 15, 2011: Lind Studio LLC $35,000; 100 State Street 

With the exception of 400 N. Madison Avenue (the Bay City Academy's former Madison Arts campus, sold last summer for $125,000, a fraction of Steven Ingersoll's original USDA-backed $1.8 million Chemical Bank mortgage), Ingersoll never lived up to his inflated investment promises. 

None of the other buildings were rehabbed or received occupancy permits.  

At the time of his January 17, 2013 email to Stahl, Ingersoll was just weeks away from losing the tax-exempt status of eight Bay City properties, an April 14, 2013 Bay City Commission decision that ultimately stripped Ingersoll’s Obsolete Property Rehabilitation Act Exemption and barred him from any use of “tax credits” on those properties. 

Ingersoll had previously used phantom “Brownfield tax credits” in 2011 to buy time, boasting to Stahl they would sell for “$900,000” and retire his Traverse City State Bank line of credit debt. 

But they never existed.




You can't sell what you don't have. 

This all happened long before Mark Noss jumped in front of the Grand Traverse Academy board (via an email) on March 18, 2014, less than a month before Steven Ingersoll’s federal tax fraud indictment—and assumed responsibility to repay what he called a “million dollar liability”. 

Why the fuck would he do that? 

Coming soon, I’ll give you what I believe is the answer.


7 comments:

  1. Sometimes taking on massive debt is part of the "look-how-big-I-am" mentality of these people. Really bizarre, but ... true.

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  2. I disagree: in my opinion, you'd have to be crazy to take on repayment of nearly a million dollars if you weren't legally responsible.

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    1. It most likely is pure greed, careless financial behavior and a sense of "I can use your money," whether it's a bank, individual or investment group" in his case. The Ingersoll cult of "IVL."

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    2. Good point. So what's the game behind all this? ;)

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    3. The game may be self agrandisement and entitlement (everyone owes him allegiance to his faulty curriculum, arrogant cock-sure and egotistical personality).

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    4. The game is the same it's always been: money.

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    5. Yep, you're right, Miss Fortune! No matter how one spells it, IVL, etc., it's his five-letter word: m-o-n-e-y!

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