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Wind Turbines – Financial Impact

Boston Money — Tue, 19 May 2009 12:33:10 +0000

Courtesy of WICKED LOCAL CLICK HERE

Nauset High moves ahead with wind turbine plan

By Debi Boucher Stetson
Tue May 19, 2009, 06:00 AM EDT

EASTHAM – Nauset Regional High School is closing in on its goal of raising $45,000 to match a $400,000 grant from the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative to design and construct a wind turbine on the school campus.

School officials envision saving close to $200,000 a year by having the school generate its own electricity, plus make money from the sale of excess electricity.

High school Principal Tom Conrad told the regional school committee last week that funds raised to date totaled “close to $30,000.”

Conrad said later that the turbine would probably be sited right behind the tennis courts “because that’s the farthest spot from our neighbors. We want to be sensitive,” he added.

Wind Turbines Eastham MA - Nauset Regional High School

Wind turbines have proved controversial in Eastham, where town meeting voters recently passed a new wind power bylaw after considerable debate and revisions. The bylaw allows 75-foot turbines throughout town, 100-foot turbines in the industrial zone on Holmes Road in North Eastham and 250-foot municipal turbines on the 125-acre town-owned parcel between Cable Road, Nauset Road and Ocean View Drive, the road that stretches between two Cape Cod National Seashore beaches. The high school is across the street from the Cable Road portion of the property.

“We had been talking about 343 [feet high],” Conrad told the school committee during a brief discussion on Eastham’s bylaw. “The higher up you go, the better the wind.” He noted that the wind tower at Massachusetts Maritime Academy in Bourne is 243 feet high. Conrad said he has been in touch with an official at Mass Maritime about sharing information regarding the success of their turbine. “They have been going for 18 months, and they have great data for us,” he said.

He said the school district is currently negotiating a contract with Boreal Renewable Energy Development to do a feasibility study and design the turbine. “We want to get on the fast lane for this – these are competitive grants, and we have been warned that if we delay we could lose the grant,” he said.

For that reason, the school is working hard to raise the matching funds. Gretel Norgeot, a parent who has spearheaded the fund-raising effort, said a letter to parents explaining the wind turbine project and appealing for donations will be sent home with high school students soon. (The letter has been approved by Nauset Regional School Committee.)

Norgeot said any size donation is welcome. “We have received many $25 donations and they all add up,” she said. She added that organizers would prefer many small donations to seeking out large donations, because receiving a large number of donations would demonstrate broad community support. “That’s what it’s all about, community,” she said. “We thought it was really important to get everybody involved.”

Fred Fenlon, Eastham’s representative on Cape Light Compact and a former member of the town’s alternative energy committee, has been working with Conrad on the turbine project and said he believes it will “absolutely” go forward. He noted that technically, the school does not need to comply with the town’s bylaws because the high school’s land was donated by Cape Cod National Seashore. “So it’s not really part of Eastham.”

Conrad indicated the school would try to work with the town’s bylaw. “The town has taken a new stand in terms of height, and we’re going to be looking at that to see what that means for us,” he said.

The wind turbine, he said, will be used as an educational tool in a number of different ways, starting with getting students involved in interpreting data from the feasibility study. “Next year we’ll offer a renewable energy course and with that will be wind turbines. From there I see it being integrated into all the subject areas – for instance, math.”

Fenlon said the educational aspect of a high school wind turbine is especially important today, because wind energy is an emerging field. “There are going to be people needed, and they have to be educated and trained, and hopefully they’ll be from the Cape,” he said, “and hopefully they’ll stay here, and raise families.”

Ryan Nestor Marblehead Wire Fraud

Boston Money — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 14:31:48 +0000

A Marblehead investment adviser who allegedly defrauded two of his elderly clients of a combined $750,000 was charged Monday with wire fraud.

Ryan Nestor, 32, formerly was registered with an affiliate of Mass Mutual, according to U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan’s office, which brought the criminal case. He worked out of a Boston office.

Prosecutors said Nestor invested funds in what the government called a “massive ponzi scheme,” planning to keep some of the proceeds. His clients allegedly did not know how the money was being invested.

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Feds say adviser defrauded elderly clients

By Julie Manganis
Staff writer

MARBLEHEAD — An investment adviser from Marblehead has been charged with defrauding two elderly investors by putting their money in what prosecutors say turned out to be a massive Ponzi scheme.

Ryan Nestor, 32, was cited yesterday in a two-count information charging him with wire fraud.

Prosecutors say he defrauded the clients out of more than $750,000 by investing their money in a company that was later sued by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Nestor, who runs a business called Harbor Point Capital LLC, was a former registered representative for a Mass Mutual-related business. Prosecutors allege that Nestor “misappropriated” the money by investing two clients’ funds in what turned out to be a massive Ponzi scheme, without the knowledge or consent of his clients.

The two clients live on Martha’s Vineyard. According to the information filed in U.S. District Court, Nestor, in April and May 2007, invested their money in a California-based company called AOB Commerce Inc., which purported to make loans to businesses in Asia.

Prosecutors allege that Nestor made investments on behalf of both clients, $170,000 for one client and $590,000 for the other in AOB by forging their signatures on authorizations to wire money from their accounts to a bank in California.

Nestor allegedly had an agreement with AOB under which he would receive a portion of the anticipated return on the investment.

A month later, in June 2007, the SEC sued AOB, alleging that it was basically a giant Ponzi scheme that used investor funds to pay other investors.

If convicted, Nestor could face up to 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine on each of the two counts.

Prosecutors are also seeing the forfeiture of Nestor’s home at 51 Bubier Road in Marblehead, which he purchased in 2007 for $725,000.

Generally, when prosecutors file an information, it means a defendant has waived his right to have the case presented to a grand jury for indictment.

His lawyer, Peter Krupp, said last night that Nestor “had no knowledge the investment he made on behalf of his clients was not legitimate. In fact, he invested and lost his own money in that investment.”

“Mr. Nestor has cooperated with the government throughout this investigation and deeply regrets the losses suffered by his clients,” Krupp went on to say.

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Wicked Local Marblehead

Marblehead – A Marblehead investment advisor was charged today with wire fraud in connection with a scheme to defraud two of his clients.

Ryan Nestor, 32, of Marblehead has been charged in a two-count information alleging that Nestor defrauded two investment clients out of more than $750,000, announced United States Attorney Michael J. Sullivan and Warren T. Bamford, special agent in charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation Boston Field Division.

According to the information, Nestor, a former registered representative for a Mass-Mutual-related entity, misappropriated more than $750,000 in client funds by investing those funds, without the knowledge or consent of his two elderly victims, in an entity that turned out to be a massive Ponzi scheme. According to investigators, Nestor invested the client funds pursuant to an agreement whereby Nestor expected to receive a portion of the returns on the improper investments.

If convicted, Nestor faces up to 30 years in prison, followed by five years of supervised release and a $1,000,000 fine on each charge.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation Boston Field Division investigated this case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Sarah E. Walters of Sullivan’s Economic Crimes Unit is prosecuting it.

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Boston Herald

Marblehead advisor accused of misusing client funds

By Associated Press | Monday, March 9, 2009 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Business & Markets

BOSTON — A Massachusetts investment advisor has been charged in a scheme to defraud two clients out of more than $750,000.

Ryan Nestor of Marblehead was accused Monday of misappropriating the money by investing it in California-based AOB Commerce Inc., which purported to make loans to companies in Asia.

In 2007 the Securities and Exchange Commission accused AOB of using invested funds in a Ponzi scheme, to repay interest due to other investors. Prosecutors said Nestor expected to receive part of the returns. AOB has said it believed it was following the law.

Nestor’s attorney, Peter Krupp, said Nestor did not know the investment he made on behalf of his clients was not legitimate and “deeply regrets” their losses. Krupp said Nestor also lost some of his own money and is cooperating with the government.

Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/business/general/view.bg?articleid=1157415