October 2, 2007

ARCADIA ENERGY FINED $130,000 FOLLOWING GUILTY PLEA TO BANKRUPTCY BRIBERY

The Office of the United States Attorney for the District of Vermont announced that On October 1, 2007, Chief United States District Judge William K. Sessions III ordered Arcadia Energy, LLC, a company organized under the laws of Georgia, to serve one year of probation and pay a fine of $130,000 following its guilty plea to a charge of bankruptcy bribery.

According to court records, in 2002, unpaid employees of the American Paper Mill of Vermont filed an involuntary bankruptcy petition against the company in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for Vermont. The main assets of the company at the time consisted of the paper mill, located in Gilman, Vermont, which had recently shut down, and a related hydroelectric plant on the Connecticut River.

The bankruptcy court appointed a trustee to oversee the proceeding. With the court's approval, the trustee prepared to sell the mill and power plant for the benefit of creditors. In November 2002, Arcadia Energy submitted a bid of $2,700,000. This bid was topped by an offer of $3,005,000 by Steve Regan Company of Utah. Under the auction procedures approved by the court, the Regan bid triggered a pubic auction that was to take place on Monday, February 10, 2003.

Over the weekend before the auction, the managing member of Arcadia Energy telephoned a representative of Steve Regan and offered to pay the company $200,000 to withdraw its bid. The Regan bid was not withdrawn and, following an auction, Regan was confirmed as the winning bidder at a price of $3,205,000.

The case was investigated by the Burlington office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Arcadia Energy is represented by John Pacht and Jerome O'Neill. The prosecutor is Assistant U.S. Attorney Gregory Waples.