A rebar contractor is demanding $540,000 from a former employee for allegedly soliciting an investment in a new company and then diverting profits to a third company.
Raymond Bouderau sued Duncan McCarthy of Sterling Forest on June 8 in U.S. District Court in White Plains.
The locus of the alleged wrongdoing is Orange County, around Greenwood Lake, where, according to the complaint, the rebar business “is highly competitive.”
Rebar consists of steel bars or mesh used to reinforce concrete in roads and masonry structures.
Bouderau, who lives in Harlem and maintains a property at Greenwood Lake, owns J-Bar Reinforcement Inc. Last year, the complaint states, McCarthy, a former employee, asked him to invest $200,000 in startup capital in Beyond Steel Inc. in Greenwood Lake.
Bouderau was to be repaid $240,000 before anyone else received salary or payments, according to a memorandum of understanding, and then receive 40% of the net profits.
McCarthy agreed not to compete against Beyond Steel, within 50 miles of its territory, for as long as he worked for the company, plus five years.
The “duration, terms and geographical area” of the noncompete agreement, he agreed, were reasonable.
In February, Sean Aronsen, another former J-Bar employee, allegedly hired McCarthy to work for his rebar business. The complaint does not identify the business, but according to a New York Department of State record, Aronsen is CEO of Rebar Kings Inc. in Monroe, near Greenwood Lake.
Aronsen”™s company purportedly got a contract for 15,000 tons of rebar that could “generate as much as $6 million in net profits.”
Bouderau”™s attorney, Raymond J. Markovich, notified McCarthy by letter that he had violated the noncompete agreement and demanded that he immediately pay Bouderau $240,000.
McCarthy”™s attorney, Randy M. Friedberg, replied to Markovich that the noncompete agreement is “completely unenforceable.”
“Even if it were enforceable in some way,” the letter states, “your client would at best have a claim against ”¦ Beyond Steel Inc., not against our client.”
Bouderau accuses McCarthy of fraud, securities violations, and breaches of contract and fiduciary duty.
McCarthy did not immediately respond to an email asking for his side of the story.
