Fraud lawsuit to continue in Capital case

A judge presiding over the Capital Management Consultants civil case ruled the fraud allegations made by company officials against an attorney are sufficient to proceed with civil action.
The judge, District Judge Paul deMahy, made his ruling July 17 in 16th Judicial District court in St. Martinville in a civil lawsuit filed by Capital Management Consultants on Jan. 26. Capital Management alleged that attorney Michael Aloise Jr. conspired with the company’s former CPA, James Scott Tucker, and the company’s former bookkeeper, Karen Duhon, to commit theft, embezzlement and fraud.
DeMahy’s ruling allowed the plaintiffs to proceed with their case.
Aloise hasn’t been criminally charged in connection with the allegations.
Two lawsuits filed by Capital Management have been consolidated: the Jan. 26 lawsuit against Aloise and the Dec. 30, 2014, lawsuit filed against Duhon, her husband Armond Duhon, former assistant bookkeeper Donnasue Peveto, and Tucker’s heirs, alleging the defendants conspired to steal money from the company, possibly as far back as the 1980s.
The Daily Review received the July 17 transcript regarding the motions and exceptions filed that day in court for the Capital Management Consultants civil lawsuit.
“I find that there is sufficient allegations of fraud which would allow the prosecution of claims related thereto,” deMahy said during the July 17 proceedings.
“In other words, at some point, trial or whatever time, the plaintiffs will have to prove acts of fraud as alleged in the petition,” deMahy said.
But the defense had a victory when deMahy said he won’t consider allegations other than fraud that resulted from actions that occurred more than three years before the lawsuit was filed.
The Daily Review emailed Aloise’s attorney, John Stewart Jr., for comment on the matter. In response, Stewart said, “The comments of Judge deMahy you mentioned only concerned a procedural issue. No substantive decision was made. It only allowed the plaintiff to proceed and attempt to prove the allegations which it will not be able to do.”
The lawsuit accused Aloise, Tucker and Karen Duhon of developing a scheme to defraud Capital Management Consultants Inc. and to fraudulently transfer immovable property and mineral interests belonging to Capital Management Consultants.
In the July 17 proceedings, Stewart said the plaintiffs have drawn lots of conclusions in the lawsuit “and that is simply all they are.”
The lawsuit concludes “in many places in the petition that Mr. Aloise committed fraud. There are no facts that are pled that support that,” Stewart said.
The lawsuit against Aloise filed Jan. 26 alleges that Aloise, Tucker and Karen Duhon conspired to transfer a lot in Willowcrest Subdivision in Berwick from Capital Management Consultants to Nelson-Tucker, a company owned by Tucker.
They are alleged to have sold the property and later repurchased it for more than twice the amount they sold it for originally.
Allegedly, Tucker had learned of an offer to lease the property for mineral, oil and gas exploration and extraction. Tucker didn’t tell Capital Management about the transactions, the plaintiffs allege.
.Aloise is accused of then preparing a cash deed transferring the reacquired property from Capital Management Consultants to Nelson-Tucker for $10.
In the July 17 civil proceedings, Capital Management Consultants attorney Margriet Langenberg said the lawsuit also alleges that Tucker “received an unjust advantage by only paying $1.00 for all transfer of mineral rights.”
The suit further alleged that Aloise assisted Tucker and Karen Duhon in the drafting of an illegal resolution appointing Tucker as president and Karen Duhon as secretary of Capital Management Consultants, knowing that they did not have authority to do so and knowing they had not been elected by Capital Management Consultants’ Board of Directors to serve in such capacities.
This illegal resolution, the lawsuit alleged, purported to authorize and empower Tucker and Karen Duhon jointly or either one of them to purchase immovable property, sell, convey, or transfer immovable property as well as transfer mineral, gas, oil and sulfur rights that were owned by Capital Management Consultants Inc., according to the suit.
The timing of this particular act was just prior to Tucker transferring, with the assistance of Aloise, to himself mineral rights that were owned by Capital Management Consultants, the suit stated.
The lawsuit accused Aloise of knowing that Tucker was an officer of Capital Management Consultants and that Tucker owed a duty of loyalty to that company in making all decisions in his capacity as a corporate fiduciary, the suit stated.
The lawsuit accused Tucker and Aloise of having a professional relationship and friendship, and alleged that Tucker hired Aloise to perform legal services for Capital Management Consultants.
In a statement Aloise emailed Feb. 2 to The Daily Review regarding the lawsuit against him, he said the Guarisco family, who owns Capital Management Consultants, and their lawyers have attempted to portray him as being Capital Management Consultants’ legal counsel, with actual knowledge of the ownership of Capital Management Consultants.
Aloise has never represented Capital Management Consultants on a regular basis, he said. Aloise’s engagement was limited to specific matters, which he was consulted by Capital Management Consultants, he said.
“It was always represented to me that CMCI (Capital Management Consultants Inc.) was owned by Scott Tucker and there was nothing to cause me to believe otherwise,” Aloise said.
“The briefest investigation would reveal that the facts alleged in these lawsuits as they relate to me are false and outrageous,” Aloise said.
The specific matters Aloise was engaged by the company for were the preparation of two cash deeds on its behalf in 2004, for which he billed $200 for each one, and reimbursement for recordation fees and examination of ownership in Hedgerow Subdivision, for which he billed $1,000 in 2011, Aloise said.
For some of the legal work of which the Guarisco family alleged in the lawsuit, Aloise was not acting as a lawyer, but rather simply as a notary public, Aloise said. “Some documents were prepared by Scott Tucker and I was asked only to notarize the signatures,” Aloise said.
Aloise only performed legal work for Capital Management Consultants on three occasions over a seven-year period from 2004 through 2011, for which he received the $1,400.
On June 29, the district attorney filed a bill of information criminally charging Karen Duhon, Armond Duhon, their company A-B-C Siding of Morgan City, Peveto and Nelson-Tucker with one count of racketeering, 355 counts of theft over $1,500 and 100 counts of money laundering in connection with the alleged crimes against Capital Management Consultants.
First Assistant District Attorney Robert Vines wouldn’t comment on whether criminal charges are possible relating to the fraud allegations against Aloise.

This story was written by Zachary Fitzgerald@daily-review.com