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Ex-president of F&S Oil, wife named in lawsuit: No fuel to back up prepaid contracts, fraudulent title transfer, state says
(New Haven Register (New Haven, CT) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Apr. 12--State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said Friday he has filed a lawsuit against the former president of a defunct Waterbury heating oil company, alleging that he illegally sold prepaid contracts and fraudulently transferred the title of his home to his wife to prevent it from being taken from the couple if he were to be sued.
Blumenthal also persuaded a state Superior Court judge to approve a $7.72 million attachment to the Fairfield home of that ex-company president, Christopher Carr.
A judge and jury will ultimately determine the extent of Carr's liability in the case, but Blumenthal said the attachment to the home is an effort by the state to recover money for consumers in the event of a potential judgment against the former F&S executive.
"His wife owns the home now, although we are saying that it was transferred by fraudulent means," Blumenthal said.
The assessed value of the home is $1 million, according to the attorney general.
Blumenthal's lawsuit alleges that as far back as April 2007 while he was still president of F&S Oil, Carr misled thousands of customers of the company and its subsidiaries into entering into pre-paid heating oil contracts and then failed to secure the fuel needed to back up those agreements.
Carr was fired in February, after he allegedly admitted to misrepresenting the value of F&S and its subsidiaries in order to convince Citizens Bank to loan the company more money, Blumenthal said in announcing the litigation.
Carr's wife, Hilary, is named in the lawsuit because two days after he was fired from his job at F&S by absentee owner Richard Stevens, Christopher Carr used a quit claim deed to transfer the title of his Penfield Road home to his wife.
Blumenthal claims the maneuver was designed to defraud the state and creditors of F&S from recovering money from Carr personally in the event of a lawsuit.
One of Carr's attorneys, Frank Silvestri, reiterated on Friday that his office has been in contact with Blumenthal.
The lawsuit against Carr, which Blumenthal filed in coordination with state Department of Consumer Protection Commissioner Jerry Farrell, is in addition to charges filed on March 14 that claim F&S and its subsidiaries violated the state's Unfair Trade Practices Act.
Blumenthal said Carr and F&S followed up the April 2007 solicitations to lure customers into signing pre-paid heating oil contracts with a second mailing in January, seeking to sign prepaid customers for next winter The January mailing came even as F&S was experiencing severe financial problems.
The January solicitation for pre-paid customers convinced more than 400 consumers to pay nearly $1 million for home heating oil that was to have been delivered during the 2008-09 home heating oil season, Blumenthal said.
To see more of New Haven Register, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.nhregister.com.
Copyright (c) 2008, New Haven Register, Conn.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
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