Maine Oxy employees file suit against owner for misrepresenting stock value

AUBURN — A group of Maine Oxy employees has filed a class-action suit against the owner of the company, claiming that he breached an Employee Stock Ownership Plan by misrepresenting the value of the employees’ stock shares so that he could buy them back at a steep discount.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in late April, pits a group of four former employees against Daniel Guerin, the president of Maine Oxy who took on full ownership of the medical, industrial and specialty gas company in late 2012.

The suit lists the four former Maine Oxy employees as plaintiffs, although the document states that they represent other workers — roughly 100 — whom they claim were likewise swindled by Guerin.

According to the suit, after he assumed ownership of the company, Guerin told the ESOP committee that Maine Oxy could no longer afford the plan and that ESOP would have to be dissolved, its shares sold back to the company.

Read more: https://www.centralmaine.com/2019/05/10/maine-oxy-employees-file-suit-against-owner/