Not much room for Avocet's "bad buggers" in Wilmington jail?

by OUR CRIME AND PUNISHMENT TEAM

The unfortunate individuals who may be targeted in a forthcoming $500 million Avocet/Genfros lawsuit in Wilmington, Delaware should be forewarned of conditions in the local nick should the US judge find against them and they opt for prison as an alternative to parting with wads of cash.

Martin Frost, joint life president of Genfros who was chairman of the Avocet Group prior to his bankruptcy, has given details of the largest (in monetary terms) court action yet proposed by him in a bid to recover multi-million pound losses from the 'bad buggers' he blames for multiple business failures.

A newsletter from Mr Frost to Genfro Plc shareholders dated April 12th claims the company's mysterious, unidentified 'donors' are seeking to obtain the assignment of "your debt claims" caused by a named family, by two firms of insolvency specialists appointed to investigate the affairs of Avocet Infinite Ltd (in compulsory liquidation) and Avocet Farms Ltd. (in administration), and others.

Investors are being invited "to join in the class actions being brought by Avocet, and Genfro shareholders in Wilmington, Delaware, USA."

The email from Mr Frost warns: "In the US the consequences of company wrongdoing by professionals are more expensive and carries punitive damages. Thus, given all the circumstances of theft, legal fraud, failure to renew Avocet patents, bad mouthing by the XXXXX and the ‘bad buggers’: the total award from a US jury trial is not likely to be less than $500 million US to Avocet shareholders with [insolvency practitioners] carrying the brunt. Currently, Genfro’s donors have the process and evidence to commence these US proceedings this April."

This is not the first time naysayers and critics of Avocet have been threatened with the full force of the Delaware legal system by Mr Frost.

In October 2020, as part of Avocet's investigation into email leaks, Mr Frost told shareholders: "Our new investors are appalled at the lack of Avocet truth pedalled on social media, on forums, and on blogs by people who should know better. So, on Thursday I shall advise who receives what and how our new investors will curtail the activities of naysayers. And yes, I do confirm that Delaware Counsel in USA is instructed to bring suit in Wilmington against those of you who breach email privacy."

That prompted one shareholder to comment: "It looks as though I'll be on my way to the United States once the extradition process is completed. I find these threats quite intimidating although I fail to see how an American court has any jurisdiction over events that take place in Great Britain".

As far as we are aware no-one has been extradited to Delaware so far, and that particular threatened lawsuit has fallen by the wayside. Associated warnings from Mr Frost at the time of action being taken against 'leakers' in English or Scottish courts also appear to have died a death.

A newsletter from the Avocet chairman in May 2021 revealed that researchers were to open files on a familiar list of Avocet critics and dissidents with total claims in subsequent writs estimated by Mr Frost to exceed £100 million. Again, nothing transpired.

However, with the stakes so high this time round, Not Just Sheep & Rugby decided to take a close look at the Wilmington penal system in case some of the "bad buggers" don't have the means to pay their share of any $500 million award.

It is more than likely failure to come up with the spondulicks would result in incarceration in Wilmington's Howard R Young Correctional Institution in the Gander Hill area of the city. 

The jail's website tells us: "The original facility, now called the West Wing, was designed to hold 360 detainees, individuals who are awaiting trial/sentencing or unable to make bail. In 1992, a new section, the East Wing, opened. This construction project added 480 beds for sentenced offenders. Additional construction projects have increased the capacity to 1,180. The facility now averages 1,500 offenders."

It is to be hoped conditions have improved since Delaware Online published an article by Cris Barrish, of The News Journal which centred on serious overcrowding in the state's prisons.

According to the feature: "The men at Wilmington’s Howard R. Young Correctional Institution are crammed inside the gym because the prison has 608 more prisoners than it should, continuing a recent trend of the worst overcrowding in more than a decade.

"Throughout the prison’s West Wing, cells designed for one man now hold three, with one sleeping on the floor. Still more live in bunk-style housing in rooms meant for vocational training, or in offices once used by counsellors in the booking and receiving section."

And, Barrish wrote: "The problem highlights another side of Delaware’s dysfunctional criminal justice system, which locks up those awaiting trial in prisons that also house convicted felons.

"Nowhere best illustrates the overflow than the gym, where five rows of 20 blue plastic cots rest on the floor. Prisoners eat meals in shifts at eight wooden picnic tables that barely fit between the side line of the basketball court painted on the floor and the concrete walls. The bathroom has one sink and one toilet, and typically has a line of men waiting their turn."

You have been warned!