"The customers are the only equity we have to try to recoup our investment," Credle says. "The original money we put in has long since disappeared, and there's $4 million unaccounted for in non-payment to Qwest."
However, the PUC's December decision to shut down Mile High and transfer its customers back to Qwest may end all hope for the investors. They thought the deal they had negotiated with Premier was a good one for customers and are angry that the utility commissioners wouldn't go along with the idea.
Chris Ryniak
Mark Manger
Travis Credle says Tim Wetherald scammed him and other Mile High investors out of $1.4 million.
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"I'm disappointed in the whole process with the PUC," Credle says. "We were hoping Premier would be made the default carrier. We felt like they were a viable group to handle the customers."
Mile High is still operating, and the bankruptcy filing may allow it a respite before Qwest finally pulls the plug, but it seems unlikely that the company will last much longer.
The investors are still hoping to get control of start-up companies in other states; Petersen believes they may soon win a license to operate the Minnesota Phone Company, which has about 800 customers. However, that may be a mixed blessing, as the company is being sued by several customers who allege that they found hundreds of dollars in bogus charges on their bills.
"It's a really screwed-up mess," Petersen says. "I think the Minnesota Phone Company can survive with what little they have left. When I invested, I didn't expect to wind up running the company."
In Iowa, the state utilities board, which has greater enforcement power than the Colorado PUC, shut down the Iowa-Nebraska Phone Company last August after finding that the company had advertised local telephone service without obtaining a license to operate. The Arizona Corporation Commission has also scheduled hearings this month on the Arizona Phone Company, looking at allegations of improper licensing and a failure to pay Qwest $2.8 million.
In Morehead City, Credle often concludes his construction deals with a handshake and doesn't bother to draw up contracts. Now he feels like he's had an education in the seamy side of business. "I've looked at a lot of crooks the last few months," he says.
But to Credle, the lowest point in the whole affair may have come in November 2001. That's when Mile High promoters faxed many of the investors a copy of a $5,000 check they claimed to have sent to a fund set up to benefit the widows and children of the New York City firefighters who lost their lives at the World Trade Center.
"I called the firefighters' association, and they said they never got the check," he says.
