Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Bouschor: A Name Synonymous with Business Failures



Through the decades, Sault Tribe members have stood by helplessly and watched one tribal business fail after another. Every failed venture bore the fingerprints of one man whose name seems to breed disaster: Bernard Bouschor.

I have forgotten the names of all Bouschor’s business failures and even the number eludes me. It’s not easy to find the details and I have looked under rugs, blankets and even under the wool over the eyes of some people, but the answers seem to be covered up pretty well. If I were to send a request under the Freedom of Information Act, would I receive a reply or would the answer be something like, “Sorry, but details of the tribe’s financial affairs are not the business of tribal members.” Venturing a guess, I believe Bouschor is responsible for between 30 and 35 failures with Greektown being the Titanic of all failures.

Although Bouschor passes off his biggest failure onto the last administration, public information can verify that Greektown’s financial struggles began when Bouschor wrapped his fool’s gold finger around a pen and signed away the Sault Tribe’s future to the Greeks for a mere $25,000. How much will the tribe have invested in Greektown only to lose it all…a billion or more?

Many casinos are going under but is the debt to owners comparable to what the Sault Tribe members will feel with the loss of Greektown? It’s probably not fair to blame it all on Bouschor so we should just blame him for those failed business’s whose beginnings were based solely on his decisions. Surely, some of the failed business ventures were properly researched by competent advisors whose decisions were not controlled by Bouschor. As soon as I hear of one tribal business failure not synonymous with the name Bouschor, I’ll post it here.

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