$7 Million Stake in Quarry Probed

SWANTON, Vt. – A small quarry here is the focus of a federal investigation of an alleged investment fraud involving up to $7 million.
The Burlington (Vt.) Free Press reports that John Byors is still in custody on bank-fraud charges in connection with the Swanton quarry and a pool of 75 investors.
The quarry, which first closed in the 1950s, reopened in 2001 after French minerals company OMYA sold the site in 2000 to Proctor, Vt.-based Barney Marble Co. The Free Press notes that the company then leased the property to Byors, an Ipswitch, Mass., entrepreneur.
The Free Press reports that a geologic report from a Vermont geological firm found five colors of stone at the site, including the red that was the quarry’s specialty – a possible 775,000 cubic feet of reddish marble.
The newspaper also quotes documents filed in U.S. District Court in Burlington, Vt., in noting that Byors solicited some 75 New-England investors for loans to improve the quarry and process blocks into polished marble. He secured some promissory notes granting possession of blocks to investors, raising approximately $7 million by last December.
Byors allegedly told investors that he needed the money to complete a $62 million contract for supplying clients in the United Arab Emirates.
By 2004, however, the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA declared the quarry abandoned. The Free Press reports that the amount of stone actually quarried, along with the location of any quarried blocks, is unknown.
Byors was charged with bank fraud by federal prosecutors last December. A federal district-court judge released him, after which Byors allegedly approached one of the investors to guarantee an additional $50,000 loan.
Federal agents arrested Byors in February for violating the terms of his release.