Lawyer Aloise sues Capital Management for defamation

A Morgan City attorney, whom Capital Management Consultants sued in January alleging he helped former company employees steal property and property rights, is suing the company, its spokesman and lawyers for intentionally defaming him.
Attorney Michael Aloise Jr. filed a lawsuit Sept. 10 in 16th Judicial District Court against Morgan City investment holdings company Capital Management Consultants, company spokesman Marwan Mohey-El-Dien, and the company’s attorneys, E. Margriet Langenberg and Barbara Lane Irwin. He’s seeking damages, according to St. Mary Parish Clerk of Court records.
Aloise’s lawsuit alleges that Mohey-El-Dien “engaged in conduct that was intended to defame, embarrass, intimidate, harass and/or intentionally inflict emotional distress,” on Aloise.
Langenberg and Irwin, attorneys for Capital Management, are also alleged to have participated in the same type of conduct as Mohey-El-Dien allegedly did, the lawsuit said.
Upon contacting Aloise about the lawsuit he filed, he said he did not want to comment on it.
On June 29, District Attorney Bo Duhe filed a bill of information charging Karen Duhon, her husband Armond Duhon, Donnasue Peveto; A-B-C Siding Co. of Morgan City; and Nelson-Tucker LLC with one count of racketeering, 354 counts of theft of $1,500 or more, and 100 counts of money laundering in connection with the alleged crimes against Capital Management.
The Duhons own A-B-C Siding Co. of Morgan City, while Nelson-Tucker was owned by Capital Management’s former controller CPA James Scott Tucker. Tucker died in January 2014.
Aloise has not been charged with any crimes in connection with the allegations Capital Management made against him.
In a lawsuit filed Dec. 30, 2014, Capital Management alleged that Tucker was the leader behind a conspiracy to steal money from the company along with former bookkeeper Karen Duhon dating back possibly to the early 1980s. The company also alleged that Karen Duhon and Tucker had a romantic relationship.
Peveto, who worked as an assistant bookkeeper and assistant to management, allegedly found out about Tucker and Karen Duhon’s theft from the company so they paid her to stay quiet, Mohey-El-Dien said.
Mohey-El-Dien is married to Laura Guarisco, daughter of the company’s founder, who discovered the theft after Tucker’s death, Mohey-El-Dien said.
Aloise was not a party to the Dec. 30 lawsuit. On Jan. 26, company officials filed a separate lawsuit against Aloise. The two lawsuits have since been consolidated into one lawsuit.
Capital Management’s lawsuit against Aloise said Aloise performed legal services for the company from at least Oct. 31, 2006, through June 20, 2014.
Aloise’s lawsuit provided examples of how the defendants caused damage to Aloise in court documents. In a Sept. 10, 2014, document, Capital Management accused Aloise of assisting Tucker in transferring Capital Management’s mineral rights to his company, Nelson-Tucker.
Capital Management accused Aloise of not telling company officials “about the mineral rights transfers and the improper sale of immovable property to James Scott Tucker or his designee,” the lawsuit said.
In the lawsuit against Aloise, Capital Management accused him of assisting Tucker and Karen Duhon in drafting an illegal resolution appointing Tucker president and Karen Duhon secretary “knowing that they did not have authority to do so.”
The alleged illegal resolution gave Tucker and Karen Duhon the ability to purchase, sell or transfer immovable property and mineral rights, the company’s lawsuit against Aloise said.
The resolution allegedly occurred just prior to Tucker transferring, with Aloise’s assistance, to himself mineral rights owned by Capital Management Consultants, the company’s lawsuit said.
In a Feb. 2 email to The Daily Review, Aloise said, “I believe it is undignified and unseemly for lawyers to attempt to try their case in public rather than in court where such matters are supposed to be determined.”
However, at that time, Aloise did provide comments defending himself against the allegations.
Aloise said the Guarisco family and their lawyers have attempted to portray Aloise as being Capital Management Consultants Inc.’s counsel, with actual knowledge of the ownership of Capital Management Consultants Inc.
“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.
Aloise has never represented Capital Management Consultants on a regular basis, he said. Aloise’s engagement was and continued to be limited to specific matters, which he was consulted by Capital Management Consultants, he said.
Other than performing services for the company on three occasions from 2004 through 2011, for which he received the $1,400, Aloise had no recollection of performing any other legal services on behalf of Capital Management Consultants nor receiving any other fee, he said.
Aloise’s Sept. 10 lawsuit quoted a Jan. 27 newspaper article in which Mohey-El-Dien accused Aloise of finding ways for Tucker to commit and enhance the alleged fraud. Aloise’s lawsuit quoted the same article in which Mohey-El-Dien said, in part, “we believe that his (Aloise’s) acts were very criminal so we’re pushing that venue as well.”
The lawsuit also quoted a Jan. 1 article where Mohey-El-Dien said Aloise was among the people who knew about and benefited from the alleged theft.
In their lawsuit against Aloise, Capital Management officials alleged that in November 2008 he assisted Tucker in reacquiring a lot in Willowcrest Subdivision in Berwick for more than twice the amount Capital Management originally sold the lot for in 2004 because Tucker allegedly knew of an offer to lease the lot for mineral and oil and gas exploration and extraction, Aloise’s lawsuit said.
Three days after recording a cash deed to reacquire the lot, the company’s lawsuit alleged that Aloise transferred mineral rights from Capital Management to Tucker’s company, Nelson-Tucker, for $1.
Capital Management alleged Aloise prepared a cash deed transferring the same lot in Willowcrest Subdivision from Capital Management to Nelson-Tucker for $10 “and other valuable consideration.”
Aloise’s lawsuit said that he has suffered numerous physical and emotional damages as a result of the allegations Capital Management and Mohey-El-Dien have made against him and “will continue to suffer in such manner for an indefinite period of time in the future.
The Daily Review contacted Mohey-El-Dien about the lawsuit against him. In response, Mohey-El-Dien said, “He (Aloise) is entitled to file a lawsuit and we are entitled to defend it.”
As of this morning, Capital Management’s attorneys, Langenberg and Irwin, had not responded to The Daily Review’s emails about the lawsuit.

This story was written by Zachary Fitzgerald of The Daily Review. Reach him at zfitzgerald@daily-review.com.