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| Some rob with a 6 gun, some with a fountain pen. |
Joan LaPlante, a New Hampshire lobbyist for the National Federation of Independent Businesses (no friend of unions), was sentenced to 66 months in prison for running a Ponzi scheme.
According to the Manchester Union Leader,
Laplante was the director of the state chapter of the National Federation of Independent Business, a trade association made up of small businesses, in the early 2000s, according to newspaper articles from the time. In 2010, she registered as a lobbyist representing the soft drink industry and an out-of-state information services company, according to the Secretary of State’s online records.
From 1996 to 2002, Laplante owned and operated JRL Business Resources LLC, a business that collected money on account receivables it purchased at discounted prices from 1996 to 2002.
But JRL discontinued its legitimate business activity by the end of 2002, prosecutors said. During the next four years, she obtained more than $2 million in loans, promising 12 to 18 percent interest and claiming she would use them in her legitimate business.
Instead, in Ponzi-like fashion, Laplante used the lenders’ money to repay loans that had been previously been made to her business, prosecutors said. When the scheme was exposed, Laplante owed more than $880,000 to people who had loaned money to her business.Investigative journalist Bob Sloan points out that NFIB has wide and deep links to ALEC (the American Legislative Exchange Council) -- which, of course, is funded by the
- The NFIB is an active partner in filing friend-of-the court briefs in cases where the
USChamber of Commerce and ALEC file such briefs. - NFIB is a member of ALEC and represented by Rosemary Elebash ALEC’s Private Sector State Chair
- NFIB staffers revolve in and out of ALEC; including Jean Card, who started with ALEC and now works for NFIB;
- NFIB uses ALEC's disinformation.
