Fuel company says workers stole funds

BIDDEFORD – A fuel delivery company is suing a couple who ran its office for many years, alleging they stole between $700,000 and $1 million to finance a lavish lifestyle that included purchases of motorcycles, jewelry and New England Patriots football tickets.

Provencher Fuels, which is owned by brothers Roger and Richard Provencher, filed the civil case two days after federal and local authorities raided the home of Ricky and JoHanne Elie last month.

About 90 items were seized, including a $35,000 recreational vehicle, a 22-foot pontoon boat and two Harley-Davidson motorcycles.

Police have documented purchases by the Elies that include more than $50,000 in jewelry and jewelry repair, a Disney Vacation Club timeshare, New England Patriots season tickets, computers, a golf cart and expensive bicycles, according to an affidavit.

No criminal charges have been filed, but Superior Court Justice Arthur Brennan ordered that the couple’s assets be frozen because he concluded it is more probable than not that Provencher Fuels will recover a judgment in excess of $1 million.

The Elies, who have yet to file a response to the suit, did not return messages seeking comment.

The Provencher brothers hired JoHanne Elie in 1990 and brought in her husband two years later, according to the lawsuit. JoHanne Elie, 46, was the company’s bookkeeper, and she and her 39-year-old husband were its only office employees.

Despite a growing customer base, the company in recent years had to borrow money to stay in business, according to an affidavit written by Biddeford Detective Robert Perkins.

The lawsuit claims that the Elies approached the Provenchers last year and offered to buy the company or its assets “in light of its depleted financial condition.” The Elies said they had a secret investor to underwrite the purchase, according to the suit.

But the Provenchers contend that there was no secret investor and that the Elies planned to use the embezzled funds to finance a purchase of the company.

Last September, the Provenchers laid off the Elies after realizing they could not keep operating with a negative cash flow, the affidavit says.

That’s when they discovered financial discrepancies in the books and contacted Biddeford police.

In the affidavit, Perkins wrote that about $400,000 in cash payments to the business from 2000 to 2005 – virtually all the payments that customers made in cash – were missing.

He also documented more than $280,000 in unauthorized use of company funds and $28,000 in company health care payments that allegedly should have been paid by the Elies.