State to recoup $1.3M from Sewall
Philip Sewall, the former president of bankrupt heating oil company M.W. Sewall & Co., was found guilty of diverting $1.3 million in taxes from the business.
Sewall was fined $2,000 for each of the three counts of failure to pay to the government sales and fuel taxes the business collected from January through March 2009, according to a press release from the Maine Attorney General's Office. Sewall allegedly used the tax money to pay his own compensation and other business expenses. The court ordered Sewall to pay $50,000 to Maine Revenue Services in the next year in addition to the $225,000 he already paid in back taxes. The state is still working to recover another $1.06 million the company owes and is working with the bankruptcy trustee to recoup the money from the sale of the business's assets.
Bath-based M.W. Sewall filed for bankruptcy in March 2009 with both assets and liabilities of between $10 million and $50 million each. The bankruptcy trustee appointed to oversee the company fired Philip Sewall early last year. The company's heating oil operations were auctioned off to former company leader Edward "Ned" Sewall III for $4.76 million. In a separate auction, Energy North Inc. of Massachusetts bid $9.27 million for M.W. Sewall's chain of 11 convenience stores. Other company assets are in the process of being sold.
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