Sure it's a problem, but it's very real. I have experienced an inverse correlation of town size vs. corruption: in my experience, the smaller the town, the more off-the-charts the corruption. YMMV.

I can think of many exceptions to this both on large and small "towns" and depending on what is meant by corruption. E.g., NYC is very large but not exactly friendly to business nor easy to navigate unless you have lots of money to spread around to "permit expeditors"" and oddly interested neighborhood groups and of course lots of lawyers and even then it's a roll of the dice on whether you'll be allowed to operate in an economically viable manner.

This individual claims to have swooped into town and bought SEVENTY-SIX properties with no documented experience doing this sort of thing.

I see nothing wrong with the fact that he's having trouble doing what he wants, he probably isn't coming close to remotely following proper procedure and clearly lacks experience, as he stated that he could barely even afford the first property - a 220k square foot warehouse he bought with apparently no business and no experience owning warehouses.

Given it's a town of 40k people, I doubt there's rampant corruption and more OP just doesn't have any idea how anything works at all. If any of his statements are true, this guy needs to stop what he's doing and learn how to adult.

Governments are just mafias with better PR.