ROCKLAND, Maine — The city has filed a lawsuit against a Massachusetts man for failing to pay for use of the municipal fish pier and claims that he operated the business as a sham to avoid personal responsibility for debts.
Rockland filed the lawsuit Monday in Knox County Superior Court against Rockland Lobster Co. LLC and its sole principal, Antonio Bussone of Chelsea, Mass.
The city is asking the court to order Bussone to pay the city $31,173 plus interest, and attorney and court costs.
Rockland Lobster and its predecessor Live Lobster Co. Inc., which the city said also was owned by Bussone, sold bait and bought lobsters at the city-owned fish pier from 2005 through 2012.
The companies had paid the necessary fees and other charges before 2012, according to the lawsuit.
The city said Rockland Lobster applied and was granted permits to conduct business at the fish pier in 2012 as a bait dealer and to buy lobsters.
The company operated at the pier in early 2012, selling bait, buying lobsters, using floats and storing equipment, such as bait coolers and pallets, at the pier. The company also used electricity and fuel from the pier.
Many of Live Lobster’s operations in Maine, including a lobster processing facility in Prospect Harbor, ceased functioning earlier this year after the company’s primary lender, TD Bank, froze the company’s accounts. In April, TD Bank filed suit against the lobster distributor, claiming the firm violated terms of a 2008 loan agreement for $4 million from the bank. That suit later was dropped, but the bank arranged a foreclosure auction that saw assets sold off in September.
Rockland Lobster ceased doing business at the Rockland pier on or about April 20.
“When Rockland Lobster ceased doing business at the fish pier, it failed to refill fuel tanks as required under its permit, and left the fish pier obstructed with abandoned personal property and littered with dirt, debris, and filth which it failed to move and clean,” the city states in its lawsuit.
The city incurred $6,792 in cleanup costs and applied a $2,500 deposit by the company to offset some of that expense.
The company also owes Rockland a total of $31,173 in permits and fees, according to the lawsuit.
“Rockland Lobster is the mere alter ego of Bussone,” the city’s lawsuit states, adding\ that Bussone transferred funds and assets of the company to himself or other entities he owned.
He also failed to file annual reports with the Maine Secretary of State’s Bureau of Corporations, failed to name and maintain a registered agent in the state, and transferred funds so that creditors could not get them, the city alleges.
“As a result of Rockland Lobster and Bussone’s conduct of the business operations of Rockland Lobster as a sham, the court is authorized and required to disregard Rockland Lobster Co., LLC as a distinct entity and to hold Bussone” liable for the debt to Rockland, according to the city’s lawsuit.
Bussone could not be reached Tuesday for comment.
Sounds like a typical businessman to me
Sounds like a common thief masquerading as a legitimate business man to me. Nothing new. It has been going on since the beginning of time.
he’d fit right in on wall street.
No, he is a small time hood. No where’s near the caliber of crook that it takes to thrive in that snake pit.
No, wait, he’s a “job creator”.
We’re open for business here in Maine.
Quick, give him another tax break.
Hrm…he started his business here in 2005….5 years before LaPage took office….
Just saying
How would Mitt have handled this??
What???
This is Nutting Honey. What about all those welfare cheats that are lying on forms just to feed their families.
What about all that money that Rep. Nutting stole from MaineCare , $1.3 mil ?
Why aren’t we chasing him for that?
i know, i’ll never forget the Nutting scam.
Ugh, I hate government and all its regulations!! Oh, wait…
I’d give him an “A+” just for the snookering job he did on people.
But he flunks the Big Test. Somewhere, somehow, it will all come back to bite him.
From Chelsea, Mass, with an Italian last name, engaged in a sketchy business. If this guy’s not in the Mafia, no one is.
Grow up
I have family in the area, and years ago I lived there for a few years. I guarantee I’m not just blowing smoke here.
Nope, you aren’t but I also wouldn’t be waving a red flag.
“Many of Live Lobster’s operations in Maine, including a lobster
processing facility in Prospect Harbor, ceased functioning earlier this year after the company’s primary lender, TD Bank, froze the company’s accounts”
Did most people miss this while reading this article? I don’t, nor does anybody else on the outside, know the ‘behind closed doors’ facts about this. Regardless of where this man lived before moving to Maine, this article points to the inability of a small business to DO business because of the mishandling of bank monies; ‘froze the company’s accounts’ means the company had no assets with which to work. Somebody mentioned red flags: according to this article permits and fees were paid prior to 2012. $31,173 in permits and fees for one year? “He also failed to file annual reports with the Maine Secretary of State’s Bureau of Corporations, failed to name and maintain a registered agent in the state, and transferred funds so that creditors could not get them, the city alleges.” And nobody did anything about it? If company funds were frozen, how were the transferred?
I’m Italian, both sides way back, my family was originally from the area. None of us are in the mob! Stereotype much?
Test
So, starting his business in Rockland in 2005 and ending his operations in April of 2012, there were no signs that he was a con artist in that almost 7 years of business. How long did he go without paying his permits and fees? I am not defending him, but were there no red flags? Did the town of Rockland or TD Bank perform any due diligence before the loans and leases were consummated?
I didn’t really get the impression that he was scamming anybody from 2005 to 2012. The “scam”, I think, if my memory serves, is that the individual and the corporate entity were not sufficiently separate. What might’ve happened is that his business wasn’t sucessful. He wasn’t able to pay back his loan. He ran out of money and everything shut down. Then he tried to get money from the Corp to him. And Rockland is trying to pierce the corporate veil and get to his own personal money to pay for the cleanup and whatever else he owes.
The city and state sound like thieves, with all of these fee’s and taxes who could keep up with it. No wonder our country is going down the drain.
I predict that this lawsuit is going to fail miserably. The taxpayer’s will as a result incur, an even larger financial loss.
Get in a very long line Rockland