Hemmerdinger Corp. v. Ruocco

976 F. Supp. 2d 401, 2013 WL 5516194, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 144864
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. New York
DecidedOctober 7, 2013
DocketNo. 12-cv-2650 (WFK)(VMS)
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 976 F. Supp. 2d 401 (Hemmerdinger Corp. v. Ruocco) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hemmerdinger Corp. v. Ruocco, 976 F. Supp. 2d 401, 2013 WL 5516194, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 144864 (E.D.N.Y. 2013).

Opinion

DECISION AND ORDER

WILLIAM F. KUNTZ, II, District Judge.

By complaint filed May 25, 2012, Plaintiff Hemmerdinger Corporation, d/b/a ATCO (“Plaintiff’ or “ATCO”) alleges Frank M. Ruocco, Jr., Boris A. Tomicic, William S. McCambridge, Earth Technology, Inc. (“ETI”), and Recycle Technology, LLC (“RecTee”) (collectively “Defendants” or “the Enterprise”) violated the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (“RICO”), 18 U.S.C. §§ 1962(c) and (d), and committed fraud by inflating bills for Defendants’ provision of soil excavation and soil remediation services. Plaintiff specifically alleges Defendants conspired to fraudulently inflate invoices for the direct cost of disposal of certain polluted materials, beginning as early as May 26, 2004, which fraudulent inflations purportedly damaged Plaintiff by at least $405,068.04. Defendants Ruocco, Tomicic, and ETI move to dismiss these claims pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure on the grounds that Plaintiffs claims are time-barred and that Plaintiff has failed to state a civil RICO claim. Defendant McCambridge, acting pro se, separately moves to dismiss on unspecified grounds. For the reasons discussed below, Defendants’ motion is GRANTED in part and DENIED in part.

[405]*405BACKGROUND

Plaintiff ATCO is a family-owned real estate development firm headquartered in New York, New York, with a second office in Queens, New York. Compl. at ¶¶ 1-2, 27. In mid-2004, Plaintiff employed general contractor Plaza Construction Corporation (“Plaza”) to build a shopping center (“Atlas Park”) in Glendale, Queens. Id. at ¶ 2. On September 2, 2004, Plaza subcontracted the soil excavation and soil remediation work at Atlas Park (“the ETI Project”) to Defendant Frank Ruocco’s company, ETI, which the complaint describes as “a site development and environmental services company based in North Haven, Connecticut.” Id. at ¶¶3, 45. ETI’s project manager, Defendant Boris Tomicic, was in charge of overseeing the ETI Project at Atlas Park. Id. at ¶ 3. Ruocco and Tomicic are both domiciled in Connecticut. Id. at ¶¶ 28, 29.

ETI’s subcontract with Plaza entitled ETI to bill for the “direct cost” of its soil excavation and soil remediation work, plus 15% in additional financial compensation, which markup was allotted to ETI to cover overhead, supervision, tools, and profit. Id. at ¶ 4. ETI submitted these invoices via Plaza to Plaintiff, who in turn paid ETI the amount owed on these invoices, between late 2004 and 2005. Id. at ¶¶ 6, 9; Compl. Ex. 18 (“Defendants’ Predicate Acts Table”) (multiple acts identified as “ETI Wire to Plaza for Certification for Payment,” dated from Feb. 2, 2005 through May 26, 2005). The complaint alleges Ruocco and Tomicic conspired with Defendant William McCambridge and McCambridge’s company RecTec to route these direct cost invoices through RecTec to inflate portions of ETI’s bills (the “Enterprise Inflations”). Id. at ¶¶ 5-6, 41. McCambridge is alleged to be domiciled in Massachusetts. Id. at 30.

RecTec was incorporated as a limited liability corporation in Massachusetts with McCambridge as its manager on May 5, 2004. Id. at ¶ 41. On November 24, 2004, McCambridge, joined by ETI’s Ruocco and Tomicic, signed RecTec’s private operation and equity agreement; each agreed to share in the company’s equity and profits. Id. at ¶¶ 43, 52. Specifically, the complaint alleges RecTec received six wire transfers from SRS, another company managed by Ruocco, for $425,000 in start-up funds. Id. at ¶ 42. SRS was dissolved on December 31, 2004, one month after the final wire transfer to RecTec. Id. The complaint describes RecTec as “a contaminated fuel disposal, soil disposal, and recycling company,” which was allegedly “secretly funded by Ruocco, and which provided absolutely nothing of value to ATCO.” Id. at ¶¶ 5-6. Rather, the complaint alleges, “the sole reason for the inclusion of [McCambridge’s] company, RecTec, in the ETI Project at Atlas Park was to provide a company through which direct cost invoices could be routed in support of the Enterprise Inflations.” Id. at ¶ 7. In other words, RecTec “provided no services whatsoever to ATCO or the Atlas Park project.” Plaintiffs Mem. of Law in Opp’n to Defs. Ruocco, Tomicic, and ETI’s Mot. to Dismiss (“Pl.’s Opp. Br.”) at 3-4 (citing Compl. at ¶¶ 5, 48, 60, 78).

As one example of the Enterprise’s scheme, Plaintiff alleges RecTec and McCambridge inflated the direct costs of services provided by nonparty Clean Earth of New Jersey (“Clean Earth”). Compl. at ¶ 8. Clean Earth provided the ETI Project with at least twelve transportation and disposal services, which generated direct cost invoices for the Atlas Park project. Id. ETI allegedly routed costs submitted by Clean Earth through RecTec, which in turn inflated those costs, before submitting the inflated direct cost invoices to Plaintiff. Id.

[406]*406According to Plaintiff, the Enterprise Inflations went unnoticed for four reasons. First, Tomicic submitted misleading budget prices to Plaintiff for the estimated direct costs, leading Plaintiff to expect a higher end price before the invoices were generated. Id. at ¶ 10. Second, because Plaintiff was aware that disposing of hazardous and contaminated soil could significantly increase costs, Plaintiff was more susceptible to trusting ETI’s misleading budget prices. Id. at ¶¶ 11, 46, 71-72. Third, Defendants created fraudulent “back-up documentation” to support the misleading budget prices and support the higher end costs, including forged competitive bids, which were fabricated to create the illusion that RecTee had offered the lowest cost services. Id. at ¶¶ 12, 69. And, finally, Defendants took advantage of the “bustling atmosphere” within the “roughly $200 million development project” to conceal their fraudulent invoices. Id. at ¶ 13.

On June 4, 2008, roughly three years after the last of the ETI Project invoices was submitted, Plaintiffs environmental lawyer, Linda Shaw, had a conversation with Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) Criminal Investigator Thomas Rudman (“Rudman”) about ETPs invoices on the Atlas Park project. Id. at ¶¶ 9, 17, 35, 57; see also Compl. Ex. 17 (Notice of Claim, dated June 5, 2008). Ms. Shaw reported that Rudman “explained that EPA is in the process of investigating ETI due to potential improper billing practices.” Compl. Ex. 17 at 2. She went on to note that Rudman “did understand the concern that civil liability could attach to Atlas Park if ETI did in fact take any material to an improper location, but added EPA had no current evidence that the hazardous lead waste material removed from the Atlas site had gone to an improper facility.” Id. Ms. Shaw also reported that Rudman had issued a federal Grand Jury subpoena for Atlas Park to either testify before a Grand Jury in Boston, Massachusetts or produce any and all materials in its possession with respect to ETI. Id. Ms. Shaw did not report whether Rudman had identified which individuals or other businesses, besides ETI, were the targets of this investigation.

Roughly one year after this conversation, on July 7, 2009, McCambridge pleaded guilty to a one-count Information charging him with conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Compl. at ¶ 18.

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976 F. Supp. 2d 401, 2013 WL 5516194, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 144864, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hemmerdinger-corp-v-ruocco-nyed-2013.