Catch Saturday’s Eagle for the latest from the ongoing saga of Thomas Etheredge’s Wild West World. In the meantime, I’m hoping some of our readers from the banking industry can answer a question that keeps nagging at me:
How does a man essentially without a business plan land millions in loans from small Wichita bank branches?
Our detailed look at Etheredge’s failure over the past year reveals that his loan requests had no traction at Wichita’s large banks.
But the smaller banks – many jousting for local market share – jumped aboard quickly. And we’ve been told that some of the loans were without disbursement oversight. It’s clear that Etheredge used his connections at Summit Church to inspire faith and cash from his friends there. But that doesn’t explain the bank loans.
Was it carelessness? Eagerness for market share? A blind buy-in to a high-profile project?