BEST SCANDAL

The saga of Jeffrey Parsons and his company, THR and Associates

This one wasn’t close. By a four-to-one margin, readers voted the apparent collapse of THR and Associates the top scandal over second-place finisher, the mayor’s music curfew. It’s easy to see why. Amid IRS audits and thousands of bounced checks written to employees and folks around the nation who sold gold, silver and other valuables to THR at buying events set up in hotels, company founder Jeffrey Parsons remained nonplussed at court hearings in his pending divorce that revealed a life of unabashed luxury built on buying low and selling high. He batted nary an eye from the witness stand as he talked about buying a home, a boat and a half-share in a Cessna jet for hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of silver coins, as if this is just regular life. While the IRS filed millions of dollars in liens against THR and Parsons, he lived it up during jaunts to Florida and the Ozarks, where he maintained a luxury home worth nearly $3 million. That $600,000 in silver sales that were omitted from the company’s tax returns? Just an oversight, Parsons told the divorce court, the venue that provided the best picture of what happens when a guy who started out selling produce from tents set up in parking lots gets into the precious metal business just as the market for bullion is going bananas. Under pressure from the judge in divorce proceedings who threatened him with jail, Parsons declared bankruptcy in September, but don’t think that he’s finished. If nothing else, Parsons over the years has proven resilient. If there’s a way to come out of this smelling like money, he’ll find it.

Runner-up: Mayor’s music curfew