Mar-Lees Seafood of New Bedford, Mass., USA on Tuesday filed an amended complaint in Suffolk County Superior Court seeking more than USD 66 million (EUR 53.3 million) in damages from the company’s former owner John Lees and others. The complaint makes 23 specific claims including fraud, violations of the unfair and deceptive acts and practices act, and disclosure of trade secrets.
Mar-Lees’ complaint names former legal counsel Michael Sweeney and his Providence law firm and nine others who it claims worked together to dishonestly enrich themselves to the detriment to the company before and after its sale in 2010. Newly named defendants include: Pamela Lees, ML Holdings Inc.; Lees Seafood Holdings, LLC.; Duffy & Sweeney, LTD; NorAtlantic 21, LLC; NA 21 Holdings, LLC; James Dwyer; Blue Sea Products, LLC and Thomas Jacob.
Mar-Lees contends that Lees, with Sweeney’s knowledge, managed to “fraudulently inflate the value of the company during negotiations for its sale to new investors.” It further claims Lees, et al, failed to disclose to the new investors they had competing interests while negotiating employment and consulting agreements after the sale.
“Lees did not actually intend to, nor did he in fact, deliver all of the goodwill of Old Mar-Lees, but rather (1) continued after the asset purchase to secretly own the majority of a competing company (65 percent of NorAtlantic 21), (2) secretly loaned money to NorAtlantic 21; (3) secretly sold products on commission to Blue Sea; (4) secretly loaned money to Blue Sea; (5) secretly loaned money to TAF Seafood Enterprises, Inc.; (6) and secretly sought to set up other seafood companies with other individuals,” reads the complaint.
The complaint also alleges Providence attorney Michael Sweeney and his firm Duffy & Sweeney committed legal malpractice by providing legal advice to Lees while it was working for the company following the 2010 sale.
“Now that the preliminaries are over, we are happy to move on to the main event in this litigation,” said David Bowles, Esq., attorney for Mar-Lees Seafood. “Discovery in arbitration was limited, but nonetheless we learned new facts that have further strengthened our case against Mr. Lees, and also against other defendants who we believe committed fraud and other wrongs against my clients.”
The original complaint was filed on 26 December 2012.
