Tarrant embroiled in Florida investment squabble
Burlington-area businessman and one-time Republican U.S. Senate candidate Richard Tarrant is disputing a federal appeals-court ruling alleging he lied under oath in connection with his role in the demise of a Florida renewable-energy company.
According to papers filed with the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta, Tarrant was untruthful when he denied secretly plotting with the company's founder to seize control of Global Energies from its chairman, Joseph C. Wortley of Boca Raton, Fla.
The appellate court based its decision on a series of emails between Tarrant and Global Energies founder James C. Juranitch. Wortley claimed he recently discovered the emails and then shared with the court.
Wortley persuaded the court that the emails reveal a plan to use an involuntary bankruptcy action to gain control of the firm without Wortley's knowledge.
"Tarrant falsely testified that he had had no conversations with Juranitch about filing an involuntary bankruptcy petition," the court concluded, citing the emails.
Tarrant, in an interview with the Burlington Free Press, said Wortley badly misled the appellate court. He and his lawyers filed papers earlier this month asking the court to reconsider its decision.
"It's a preposterous charge, and it is only that, based on a doctored videotape to which I have not yet responded in court," Tarrant said. He also said he was given no chance to defend himself before the appellate court.
Tarrant, who lives part time in Florida, made a $1 million investment in Global Energies in 2009 through a venture capital firm he controls. He and Juranitch later formed Plasma Power Inc., which is hoping to build a $100 million waste-to-energy facility in Iowa.
After the collapse of Global Energies, Wortley sued Tarrant and others for $100 million in Florida state court. That case was later dismissed. Wortley owned 67 percent of Global Energies.
Tarrant, in interviews, has claimed he tried unsuccessfully to mediate a dispute between Wortley and Juranitch after the two had a falling out.
Global Energies' mission was to convert carbon dioxide to an energy source via an extreme heat process. Plasma Power's technology involves use of a plasma arc burner that vaporizes solid waste at 100,000 degrees, converting it to a gas with slag residue that can be used in road paving.
Tarrant co-founded IDX Corp., a health care software company that was purchased by GE Healthcare in 2005 for $1.2 billion.
In 2006, Tarrant spent more than $7 million of his own money in a bid for the Senate. Tarrant lost to then-U.S. Rep. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., by a 2-1 margin. Tarrant has lived mostly in Florida since losing the Senate race.
Tarrant and his wife, Deborah, also oversee the Richard E. and Deborah L. Tarrant Foundation, regarded as one of the largest philanthropic institutions in Vermont.
Contact Sam Hemingway at 660-1850 or shemingway@freepressmedia.com. Follow Sam on Twitter at www.twitter.com/SamuelHemingway.