steveNH said:
http://blogs.courant.com/george
ombossy/2008/12/new-england-pellet-sued-for-mi.html
Unfortunately a relatively meaningless solution. NEP merely has to declare bankruptcy and walk away; whatever assets are left are distributed to the creditors and I would think the individual customers are probably pretty far down the list of creditors (his landlord, vehicle lien holders, etc. are likely to have supremacy).
The AG doesn't have to "fight for" a court order against them - it's a pretty easy standard to meet; he's just got to file the paperwork. What he should be doing is pursuing criminal charges for fraud & theft that would survive the business' bankruptcy proceedings. As it stands, Steve either walks away and starts a new company or sticks it out & refunds the money but fights the imposition of additional penalties and plea bargains that away in return for paying the money back - the state would likely accept that in order to have a "win" for the consumers (they get their money back). In the long run in either case, the folks who bought from them are stuck paying far larger $ for their pellets or waiting until next year to fire up those stoves.
If the AG went the criminal route rather than the civil one he's pursuing, at least Steve would likely end up with a roommate named Bubba. His partner Jason would no doubt rat him out in a minute to avoid prison time - corrections folks make really big targets when they hit the other side of the cage.
(BTW, was it "Jason" who posted in an earlier thread that he had enough money to buy all the pellet plants in New England?)
