Eideard

Carl Paladino’s campaign stiffed about a dozen consultants, vendors and staff members for some $130,000 in salaries, fees and expenses, according to numerous veterans of his failed gubernatorial bid.

They are pressing for payment from a campaign committee, Paladino for the People, that is deep in debt. Public records show the committee has a balance of only $5,305 and debts of $6.1 million, most of them loans from the candidate.

“I would have expected a nice thank-you from Carl for all the hard work I had contributed, but instead I got screwed,” said Tim Suereth, who first served as manager of internal operations and later as an unpaid volunteer…

“There are a lot of people who didn’t get paid, and for many of the people who got paid, it took a while, and some did not get full payment,” he said. “It’s outrageous.”

William Rey said he is one of them.

The Paladino campaign paid him only $9,205 of the $14,031 he billed in late October for video production, Rey said. The check, he said, noted a “credit” to explain the difference.

“I don’t know if it’s a credit; it’s more like thievery if you ask me,” Rey said.

What more would you expect? When democracy speaks and you lose, beancounters and reactionaries think it’s perfectly OK to pick up their marbles – and maybe some of yours – and go home.

A Canadian bankruptcy court ruled a Nova Scotia ex-student with bank loans worth $50,000 doesn’t have to pay it back as the bank wasn’t wise in issuing them.

What!?

Alfredo Abdo, now 23, took out the first loan worth $20,000 from the Royal Bank of Canada in Halifax in his second year studying engineering at Dalhousie University in 2004, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported.

Despite having a grade point average of 4.06 and a scholarship, Abdo lost much of the loan through bad online investments, the court heard.

The bank then offered him a second loan of $30,000, which he took. After switching to commerce from engineering, Abdo told the court he began experiencing stress-related dizzy spells and he dropped out of school and couldn’t find work.

He filed for bankruptcy a year ago and now lives with his mother, the report said.

Bankruptcy registrar Richard Cregan ruled against the bank’s claims for at least a partial repayment.

Another good reason – I guess – for keeping my Canadian options open. Like if I ever want a loan I intend to default on.