Blumenthal Hires Administrator To Handle F&S Payouts

March 15, 2010 by Josh Morgan

Customers who lost millions when F&S Oil abruptly closed down two years ago are one step closer to a refund, according to Attorney General Richard Blumenthal.
An administrator was recently hired to dole out $1 million to thousands of customers who filed claims with Blumenthal's office. When F&S, and it subsidiaries like Village Oil in Cheshire, closed in March 2008, many people were left literally in the cold after prepaying for oil and service contracts. The Garden City Group of Seattle, Wash., was selected from a group of four different companies to handle the administrative duties of distributing the money to as many as 10,000 complainants, 2500 of which have already filed claims with the attorney general's office, Blumenthal said. While $1 million appears to be a large sum of money, it is approximately 30 percent of the $3.1 million reportedly lost when the company shut down.
"Hiring a claims administrator is a vital step toward providing F&S customers restitution," Blumenthal said. "The administrator will distribute checks as soon as possible to F&S customers left in the cold by the company’s sudden bankruptcy. Scarce assets were a huge hurdle in our tough fight for restitution, but this result assures some relief."
Blumenthal stated that checks would be mailed out this spring and the amount of restitution would be determined by Garden City and his office. In December, right before Christmas, Superior Court Judge Grant Miller ruled how to divide the $3.4 million raised during liquidation sales of the company's assets. A portion went to pay back Citizen's Bank, to which F&S owed approximately $11 million in loans. Additional funds, roughly $280,000, went to Carlton Helming's firm, which was responsible for the receivership and auctioning of F&S assets last year. An additional $1.5 million is not being doled out as of yet, Blumenthal said, as there is some contention with creditors at this time.
"Consumers should receive checks this spring; compensation for oil and services they purchased, but never received. My office will work closely with the claims administrator to assure that consumers receive compensation fairly, quickly, and efficiently," Blumenthal said. "My office’s investigation into the collapse of F&S Oil is active and ongoing. We continue pursuing additional assets for restitution to F&S customers."
Former F&S customers who filed a claim with the Attorney General's office should have received paperwork already detailing their claim information. Residents who have not received the documents should call Blumenthal's office at (860) 808-5318. A Web site will be established shortly to keep the public informed about the progress being made by Garden City.