Loyalty, in the entourage of Palm Beach billionaire Bill Koch, is a rare commodity, if you believe a stunning lawsuit quietly filed in Delaware this summer.
In the paperwork, Koch admitted he almost lost control of Oxbow, the West Palm Beach energy company he started 33 years ago, in a coup attempt supported by board members and a former county elected official acting as a “mole.”
Indeed, the lawsuit unmasked Oxbow’s own general counsel at the time, former Palm Beach County State Attorney Michael McAuliffe, as one of the plotters on a “secret mission” to get rid of Koch and clear the way for a sale of the company.
And now the oft-litigious Koch, 76 , the brother of Tea Party sugar daddies David and Charles Koch, is striking back.
He sued an equity company, current Oxbow directors Barry Volpert and Robert Hurst and two former directors for break of fiduciary duty.
Eric Johnson, who was Oxbow president and COO when Koch fired him in June, is also named as a defendant.
