The "F-Word" in Real Estate Development

So what if a real estate developer makes promises and agreements in order to receive favor either through rezoning hearings, a sales agreement, receipt of public subsidies, special public financing, or to get a bye on critical upgrades or on following preservation standards, or possibly even all of the above, then renege on those agreements after receiving favor in all of his demands?   And what if he even holds the project up as a hostage in order to receive even more public subsidies because miscalculations and/or poor planning so he can further improve his profit margins for himself and his investors/stockholders?  Within the financial world, they have a name for this and it begins with the letter “F.”  And so it would then lead one to conclude that those public officials and legal counsels who allow this action to take place while being complacent, and, in some cases, even offering praise of the actions, would be considered accomplices in those actions.  And let’s say hypothetically that if the actions are, in fact, considered criminal acts, then the accomplices would be participants in those crimes and would be subject to probes or inquiries into at least ethics concerns if not corruption or worse.  And the decision-making is done with private meetings behind closed door and absent of community and national stakeholders.  Are we so desperate for redevelopment in our historic community that we would lower our standards of integrity for all who participate?  Does this sound like the community of one of the most respected US presidents who coined the phrase, “The Buck Stops Here?”  To quote Richard Whately, 19^th-century English rhetorician & author, “All frauds, like the wall daubed with untempered mortar ... always tend to the decay of what they are devised to support.”  In other words, don’t be surprised to witness the failure of these real estate projects initiated and founded on deception.  These failures not only affect people and property, but radiate throughout our historic community.