Mobile, AL – A jury in Mobile has ordered an energy company to pay $10.4 million over allegations it fraudulently claimed it could produce cheap fuel from hay, waste wood and other material.
Cello Energy lost the federal lawsuit filed by Parsons & Wittemore Enterprises, a New York-based paper company that invested in the endeavor.
The jury returned the verdict Monday against Cello Energy and the partnership that owned it, Boykin Trust. Cello Energy is run by Jack Boykin of Montrose, a businessman and former chairman of the Alabama Ethics Commission.
Cello Energy built and staffed a fuel plant. But Parsons & Wittemore insisted the Alabama firm never accomplished what Boykin had long promised - deriving motor fuel from wood chips, crop residue and other biomass.
(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)