Details are beginning to emerge on the case that the Town, through it’s hydro subsidiaries, has filed over the Biodigester project. The $18 million suit names three defendants including the former mayor, Bob Bentley.
Amongst the claims in the court document is the following:
“The Bio-Digester project became a financial disaster as a result of the defendants’ complete failure to ensure effective corporate governance and to ensure that corporate decisions were made in the best interests of the plaintiff companies. The plaintiff companies’ best interests were made subservient to the interests of the defendants James Detenbeck and Joseph Panetta who, with the support of the defendant Robert Bentley, appointed themselves as contractors and project managers and received hundreds of thousands of dollars for service provided in those capacities while they continued to serve as directors of the plaintiff companies, ostensibly responsible for the work done by themselves as contractors and project managers. In short, the defendants preferred their own financial interests to the best interests of the plaintiff companies, of which they were at all material times directors and officers, and to which they owed fiduciary duties.”
While some of these allegations should not come as a surprise to readers, the claim that some of the individuals “received hundreds of thousands of dollars” certainly is jaw-dropping.
It should be interesting to see how this all plays out in the court room, although it can be expected there will be a lot of pre-trial motions and attempts at dismissal thus pushing any trial further down the road.
For more details on the filing, please read Mike Williscraft’s article at NewsNow: https://www.wn3.ca/2019/07/25/grimsby-files-18-million-civil-suit