Republican Presidential Candidate Andy Martin fights to “Save The Balsams”

Andy Martin launches efforts to save a New Hampshire landmark hotel from being destroyed by Ocean Properties. Martin asks New Hampshire Governor John Lynch and Attorney General Michael Delaney to concede they approved a fraudulent sale of the trust property and to cancel their approval for the transfer of The Balsams to a buyer that plans to dismantle the hotel and destroy the largest employer in the North Country.

ANDY MARTIN /2012

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July 20, 2011

Hon. John Lynch

Governor

State House - 107 N. Main St.

Concord, NH 03301

via fax (603) 271-7640

and

Hon. Michael A. Delaney

Attorney General

33 Capitol Street

Concord, NH 03301

via fax (603) 271-2110

Re: The Political Scam Involving Sale of “The Balsams”

Dear Governor Lynch and

General Delaney:

Forty-five years ago, as a young law student at the University of Illinois, I began to expose political corruption in Illinois. While still a law student I was a small part of a team that exposed corruption on the Illinois Supreme Court; two judges were forced to resign after taking bank stock bribes.

In later years I helped send Mafia hoodlums to federal prison; my exposures helped lead to Operation Greylord, and sent some eighty judges and court staff to prison. In other words, I am one of the nation’s most experienced investigators of political corruption. My corruption-fighting has been nonpartisan. I expose both Democrats and Republicans. In my view there is no room for corruption, and the appearance of political favoritism and corruption, in public life.

“The Balsams” is one of New Hampshire’s treasures. It has been a hotel for 150 years. It offers world-class cuisine, as well as a training program for culinary arts. It is also part of America’s political history due to early balloting every four years at Dixville Notch. The Tillotson Trust was created to ensure that The Balsams stayed in the “North Country family,” and that the hotel was operated in the best interests of North Country residents. That is an explicit part of the trust documents.

In forty-five years of investigating corruption I have seldom seen a more corrupt process than the charade which delivered The Balsams to Ocean Properties, Ltd.

Ostensibly the Tillotson trustees established objective criteria for a buyer/sale. Ostensibly Ocean Properties submitted some sort of secret offer in accordance with the Trust’s putative sale criteria.

Last week I submitted a Right-to-Know request to both of your offices. There has been no response despite the urgency of the matter.

Ocean Properties lied. Ocean Properties has not even closed on the purchase of The Balsams and already they have announced closing the hotel for between one and two years. A vital economic resource of northern New Hampshire would be destroyed, never to recover.

Where are The Balsams sale contracts and correspondence with the AG's office? Why have you resisted turning them over to me under the Right-to-Know law? Why the silence? Why is the AG refusing and failing to deliver a response to my request for the full file? The matter is current, so preparing a copy of the complete file should be simple and straightforward. Obviously, you have been caught in a corrupt scheme to promote the interests of Ocean Properties and not the interests of the beneficiaries of the Tillotson Trust. That explains your silence and your shuffling.

The appearance of self-dealing, corruption, political favoritism and contempt for the public interest is pervasive in The Balsams sale. I intend to pursue the matter vigorously with litigation, and complaints to federal and state criminal authorities, and also to the New Hampshire Supreme Court.

Either the Attorney General’s staff was incompetent, and became a dupe of Ocean Properties, or the Attorney General's staff knew that a fraudulent procedure was being orchestrated and the AG’s staff aided and abetted in the fraud. Which is it? Choose your poison.

I would like to offer you an expeditious way out of this political scandal.

First, I ask that the Governor direct the Attorney General to revoke and vacate the Attorney General’s approval of the sale of The Balsams. That approval was clearly obtained under the fraudulent pretenses and representations that the hotel would in fact be kept open. There is an overwhelming appearance of fraud and manipulation. There is an obvious right to rescind the AG’s approval.

Second, I ask that you direct the Tillotson Trust to cancel its purported closing, so that the hotel can be preserved as a going concern while the matter is reviewed.

Third, I suggest that the Tillotson Trust reopen the sale process to new bidders based on binding constraints and an open and transparent sale process. No more secret sales and insider deals. If Ocean Properties was indeed an open and above buyer, then the short delay will remove the taint of the current process of manipulation and abuse and the sale can go forward.

Ocean Properties publicly promised to keep the hotel open for a year, and then reneged. Ocean Properties obviously was a fraudulent and insincere bidder.

The only alternative to settlement is protracted litigation.

The Balsams is the largest employer in the North Country. Where are the employees going to find jobs? Ocean Properties announced the contemptuous proposal that cooks could apply to be carpenters once the hotel is closed and continuity of employment is destroyed. What arrogance. What greed. I am considering calling for a nationwide boycott of all Ocean Properties hotels and resorts.

How could you possibly approve a sale pursuant to a Trust document mandating that the interests of the North Country be paramount, and destroy the livelihood of the hotel’s employees and hundreds or thousands more who depend on those paychecks?

In my opinion, once potential buyers/bidders realized that Tillotson Trust officials had rigged the process in favor of Ocean Properties, the bidders walked away. The whole sale process was a sham.

If it appears that Tillotson Trust officials had “sweetheart” arrangements with Ocean Properties then the trust’s officials should also be removed or replaced by a probate court.

Please feel free to contact me if you wish to discuss a resolution of this controversy. If I have not heard from you by the close of business on Monday, July 25th, and if I have not received by overnight delivery my requested Right-to-Know documents before then, then I will take all necessary and appropriate emergency action to (i) preserve the status quo pendente lite and (ii) bar the sale of The Balsams to Ocean Properties.

Time is of the essence. Lives are being destroyed. A New Hampshire institution is being desecrated. You are doing nothing. I am doing everything to save this institution and the hundreds of jobs at stake.

Respectfully submitted,

ANDY MARTIN

AM:sp

© Copyright by Andy Martin 2011 - All rights reserved