While the New Mexican business desk lumbers along, the Journal has been pursuing the scandal at bankrupt Thornburg Mortgage. Last month the company’s principals, Larry Goldstone and Clarence Simmons, were forced to resign after they were accused by the Justice Department of taking money owed to creditors and spending it on themselves. Mark Oswald, the editor of the Journal’s northern New Mexico edition, went on to report that because of the “shocking allegations” Garrett Thornburg himself had resigned from Thornburg Mortgage’s board.
That was mostly window dressing. Mr. Thornburg remains at the helm of another entity, Thornburg Mortgage Advisory Corporation, which manages what is left of the mortgage company. Last week, we learn from Sunday’s Journal, he took another step to distance himself: a legal complaint accusing his old friends of “self-dealing,” “corporate waste,” and “unjust enrichment.”
We’re supposed to believe that until their sudden betrayal, everything Mr. Goldstone and Mr. Simmons did was for the greater good of the company and its stockholders. After the two executives underwent a Jekyll-and-Hyde-like transformation, they were removed from their posts. Now everything is fine again.
Maybe the feds will buy this story. Otherwise a judge will be appointed to take over Thornburg Mortgage and preside over its liquidation. If that happens who knows what else will come scurrying from under the rocks?
George Johnson
The Santa Fe Review
