New Castle County Executive Matt Meyer announced that Ideanomics, owners of the Delaware Board of Trade (DBOT), have repaid their $3 million loan to New Castle County taxpayers.
In November 2015, DBOT borrowed $3 million that came from a park fund. That debt was repaid with an annual $180,000 interest payment. The loan, at one point, was secured by software that critics claimed was of little monetary value.
“I am thankful that the Delaware Board of Trade honored their debt to New Castle County residents,” said County Executive Meyer. “Among our most sacred duties is to be a good steward of your tax dollars, and I made a personal pledge four years ago to get this money back. I am thrilled that this chapter of county government is now behind us.”
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The controversial loan was made as part of the economic development strategy of former County Executive Tom Gordon, who at one point was working on a Delaware River port plan.
The Board of Trade, organized by stock exchange executives and a former aide to now President-Elect Joe Biden, was seen as a way to make Wilmington into a center for the trading of securities, with the potential to employ dozens if not hundreds of people.
That never happened and the exchange never employed more than a handful of people.
