Suspicious deaths in an idyllic seaside community and detective work that points to poison sound like themes from a classic murder mystery. But the victims in this Maine whodunnit were trees that stood in the way of a wealthy family’s oceanfront view, allegedly felled by well-heeled killers who, while ostracized and publicly shamed, remain free.
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To make matters worse, the herbicide used to poison the trees leached into a neighboring park and the town’s only public seaside beach. The state attorney general is now investigating.
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Amelia Bond, former CEO of the St. Louis Foundation, which oversees charitable funds with more than $500 million in assets, brought the herbicide [Tebuthiuron] from Missouri in 2021 and applied it near oak trees on the waterfront property of Lisa Gorman, wife of the late Leon Gorman, L.L. Bean’s president and grandson of L.L. himself, according to a pair of consent agreements with the town and the state pesticide board.
Bond’s husband, Arthur Bond III, is an architect and the nephew of former U.S. Sen. Kit Bond. Their summer home, owned by a trust, is situated directly behind Gorman’s home, farther up the hill.
When the trees and other vegetation began dying, Amelia Bond told Gorman in June 2022 that the tree didn’t look good and offered to share the cost of removing them, Gorman’s lawyer wrote in a document.
Instead, Gorman had the trees tested.
$4,500 for illegal use of pesticide, $180,000 to the town for violations, $30,000 for environmental testing and $1.5 million to the nieghbors. That's probably a drop in the bucket for the Bonds.
That's what the rich do: Break the law and, if they get caught, pay the fines. At least Toll-Booth Ned claimed he didn't know about illegal tree-cutting, but the Bonds sure as shit knew what they were doing.
3 comments:
A fine is a price.
There are bigger turds
Tim Murphy has a great story at Washington Monthly that shows, yet again, that you're justified in holding every idea you have about just what a rotten human being Dan Snyder is. It's a story about trees, egregious abuses of government power, and how easy it is for regular people to have their lives ruined for not heeding the whims of disgusting rich people.
You definitely need to read the whole thing, but here's the gist: Dan Snyder couldn't see the Potomac river from his gigantic mansion because some trees were in his way. Dan Snyder, being a horrible rich person, decided that he was going to get those 140 trees cut down, despite the fact that they were on national parks property and despite the fact that he had no justifiable reason other than "I am a rich asshole who wants to stare at a river while living in my rich asshole house" for wanting them cut down. Snyder tried to offer a $25,000 "cash contribution" to the park in return for a permit
https://deadspin.com/dan-snyder-killed-some-trees-and-a-park-ranger-paid-th-1494113337/
Another formal NFL owner now has a piece of the Milwaukee Bucks
According to the Associated Press, Pilot Flying J CEO and Cleveland Browns football franchise owner Jimmy Haslam has agreed to a settlement with truckers who say the company cheated them out of fuel rebates.
The AP reported that more than 20 trucking companies nationwide have lawsuits against Pilot, saying that they were defrauded out of money from a diesel-rebate program. Pilot Flying J is the largest truck-stop chain in North America.
The lawsuits alleged that Pilot sales staff promised volume discounts to some of its trucking customers that would be paid in the form of rebates and the company did not pay what was owed through its programs. According to the AP, five of the company’s sales employees have pleaded guilty in connection with the case and have agreed to cooperate with federal prosecutors in an ongoing criminal i
https://www.kgglaw.com/class-action-lawsuits/pilot-flying-j-settles-with-trucking-companies-in-an-attempt-to-avoid-class-action-suit/
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