All fraud claims against lawyer dismissed in Capital Management suit

All claims of fraud in Capital Management Consultants’ 2015 lawsuit against attorney Michael Aloise Jr. of Morgan City have been dismissed, according to St. Mary Parish clerk of court records.
Company officials had accused Aloise of assisting in an alleged theft scheme to steal property and property rights from the company. Capital Management Consultants is an investment holdings company based in Morgan City.
On Sept. 13, District Judge Paul deMahy issued a judgment dismissing all claims of fraud against Aloise. The judge designated the ruling as final.
Aloise had motioned for summary judgment in the case Aug. 26. The court granted his motion, in part, and denied only the motion for summary judgment relating to the April 25, 2012, cash deed transferring Lot 11-A in Willowcrest Subdivision from Capital Management Consultants to Nelson-Tucker, records said.
Capital Management had filed a lawsuit Jan. 26, 2015, alleging that Aloise conspired with the company’s former CPA, James Scott Tucker, and the company’s former bookkeeper, Karen Duhon, to commit theft, embezzlement and fraud. Tucker died in January 2014.
The lawsuit was later consolidated with a Dec. 30, 2014, lawsuit Capital Management filed against Karen Duhon, her husband Armond Duhon, Tucker’s succession, former assistant bookkeeper Donnasue Peveto and others. The Dec. 30, 2014, lawsuit alleged that former employees of Capital Management stole millions of dollars from the company over many years.
In all, the company alleged up to $30 million in theft.
Aloise also filed a lawsuit Sept. 10, 2015, against Capital Management and its representatives, including the company’s spokesman, Marwan Mohey-El-Dien, for defamation. On May 18, Judge Keith Comeaux dismissed the lawsuit. Aloise appealed the dismissal, according to court records.
Aloise said Thursday that he did not want to comment on either of the lawsuits.
Capital Management alleged in its lawsuit that Aloise helped arrange for the sale of company property and later helped repurchase the property for more than twice the amount they originally sold it for.
In January 2004, Aloise was alleged to have prepared a cash deed transferring a lot in Willowcrest Subdivision from Capital Management to Thane Gerald Aucoin and his wife, Sunya Jo Flesch Aucoin. The sale was for $168,900.
Tucker had allegedly 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 alleged.
In November 2008, Tucker and Aloise allegedly transferred the lot in Willowcrest Subdivision back to Capital Management from the Aucoins. The sale this time was for $375,000, according to Capital Management’s lawsuit.
In April 2012, Aloise, in concert with Tucker, prepared, notarized and recorded a cash deed transferring the lot in Willowcrest subdivision from Capital Management Consultants to Nelson-Tucker Ltd.
Aloise was accused of then preparing a cash deed transferring the reacquired property from Capital Management Consultants to Nelson-Tucker for $10.
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 Tucker and Karen Duhon, jointly or individually, 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.
In a February 2015 email to The Daily Review, Aloise said the allegations against him were “false and outrageous.”
He said the Guarisco family, which owns Capital Management, and their lawyers attempted to portray him as being Capital Management Consultants’ counsel, with actual knowledge of the ownership of Capital Management Consultants Inc.
“It was always represented to me that CMCI (Capital Management Consultants) was owned by Scott Tucker and there was nothing to cause me to believe otherwise,” Aloise said.
Aloise 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.
The specific matters he 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.
Aloise has not been charged with any crimes in connection with the alleged scheme. However, several others that Capital Management accused in the lawsuit are facing criminal charges in the case.
In June 2015, Karen Duhon, Armond Duhon, Peveto, A-B-C Siding of Morgan City, the Duhon’s company; and Nelson-Tucker, a company owned by Tucker, were charged collectively with one count of racketeering, 354 counts of theft of $1,500 or more, and 100 counts of money laundering.
Peveto pleaded guilty in December 2015 to 123 counts of theft over $1,500 and one count of racketeering and agreed to testify against her co-defendants. But Peveto died in March of natural causes.