FRM Debacle: Opportunities Ignored and Overlooked; Each of the State Agencies Involved could have Done a Lot More Than Each Said It could Do (Frm Update) (Financial Resources Mortgage Inc.)

The legislative inquiry into the Financial Resources Mortgage Inc. affair, allegedly the biggest Ponzi scheme in New Hampshire history, started by looking at the law, but it appears to be ending with calls for accountability by those who didn't enforce the law, starting with Banking Commissioner Peter Hildreth. "When it got right down to it, the state screwed up not a little bit, but monumentally and it caused people to lose their life savings," said Al McIlvene, a lender and leader of a group insisting that "it wasn't a matter of laws, but of men" that led to the FRM debacle.