Just, a question for now, if you were a mortgagee, with Bruce Nedegaard as your mortgagor, would you wait over half a year to record the mortgage? If not, why not? That's a really, really, really interesting question, to me at least. And who, you may ask, would sit on a mortgage position that way and why? I wonder the same thing, but I have a "who" in mind, from a document I have seen, a satisfaction of mortgage; and a settlement statement. City files, public data disclosure request, anyone can ask, the law says the disclosure has to be given, for public data.
And I want to see negotiation papers, a full file, two properties; plus earnest money contracts, escrow instructions, title abstracts the City of Ramsey relied upon, and a complete settlement statement for each of the properties. Then I would hope the feds ask the same questions; and get disclosure of the escrow files, etc., things that might not be public data but might be of interest, given the Nedegaard focus, and Town Center and Renne appraisals being of concern. But that can await another post. Here's my only story excerpt, and guess why I think October 2005 is an interesting thing [perhaps it has to do with an unrecorded mortgage up to that point, but that's the only hint I will give for now]. Here's Strib:
It wasn't until a meeting in October 2005 that the participating banks learned that the Ramsey Town Center project had a serious credit problem, that the project was in default, and that the officials involved in Pentagon Credit paid back the secondary loans before the $35 million loan.
Here's a picture of a Norman Castle, in England [Wales, actually, but hey, for us, what's the difference, England's good enough, we're not Welsh]:
Now, for something totally different, a picture of our town's Norman Castle, in Town Center, aka "Ramsey Municipal Center" [with Ben the Ramsey taxpayer featured, as always smiling, perhaps at how Town Center stories get better and better] but we all know it is, at its core, from its origins, truly a Norman Castle:
Now here's a picture of a building at Town Center, one of two commercial ones I know of, this one diagonally across Sunwood Blvd. from the city's Norman Castle, aka "Ramsey Municipal Center":
Now here's a picture of the reflectorized window of that building's southwest corner; and that "community bank" soon to arrive back in August 2007 when the picture was taken, what's happened to it, why is it not here now; and do you suppose it was going to be a Community National Bank, as well as "community bank" and that might be a factor in the delay?
Your guess is as good as mine, but somebody knows more than I do; I will bet on that at 5-to-1 odds. Any takers?
And who do you suppose sat with an unrecorded mortgage for half a year, or am I reading that Satisfaction of Mortgage document incorrectly - mortgage dated March 29, 2005 but recorded October 28, 2005, around when that Strib article said something about a serious credit problem? And would a credit problem look less serious before that, if a mortgage existed but was being held, unrecorded? Held unrecorded by intent, or neglect and error? What intent could there be?
Good questions for some seasoned investigator or bank litigation attorney to ask, not for fools like Ben and me.