Hebert says he was confused by Firebaugh's apparent financial difficulties not just because of his claims to run an investment company with serious assets, but from getting to know him personally. Firebaugh seemed to be living well at the time, Hebert says, driving around in a sporty yellow Corvette.
Ultimately, the investors in the Creekside project sued Firebaugh, claiming they'd been duped into putting money and time into the project based on Firebaugh's assertion that he had enough assets to get construction going. They came across his bankruptcy filing, which showed that both Firebaugh and the companies he claimed to own were broke. The project was never built. This past April, a federal judge in Idaho granted a default judgment against Firebaugh in the amount of $386,000.
Tom Carlson
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All these aggrieved parties are now bolstering the claims against Firebaugh in the fight over Integrated. Longley and Cooper have filed declarations in court supporting the investors' claim that Firebaugh is a fraud who shouldn't be allowed to touch the company he started.
In attempting to explain his right to the company, Firebaugh uses a whiteboard in his attorney's office and begins to draw a series of circles, each a separate company under the Integrated umbrella. Then he connects the circles with arrows, saying that licenses and ownership were moving around among the companies. It's nearly impossible to follow him, but the end result, he says, is that a new company he's formed is the rightful owner of the invention Integrated claims to possess. He finishes his lengthy explanation, sits, and shakes his head, saying he just wants to tell the truth.
So far, Judge Paris Kallas has been unconvinced. "My head hurts," she informed the court at an Oct. 2 hearing, after Firebaugh's attorney, John Tollefson, attempted to explain his client's case. She signed an order temporarily giving control of the company back to the current Board of Directors and investors, as well as all the rights to any catalytic converter systems developed.
Tollefson believes that Kallas was out of bounds, saying she ruled on the basis of Firebaugh's allegedly shady past. Even if his client did terrible things previously, Tollefson says, it's irrelevant to the current court proceeding. He points out that you don't have the right to steal from someone just because they are convicted of theft.
Meantime, Integrated may be losing out on its potential market. PACCAR, which makes Kenworth and Peterbilt rigs, has now backed away. In a June 19 letter from PACCAR's director of purchasing, the Bellevue company bowed out of any further work with Integrated until the suits are resolved: "We are not in a position to be the arbiter of this dispute," it read in part. The license with Argonne, required to make DeNOx work, is also in jeopardy.
The Integrated Board of Directors may be losing other deals as well. According to court records, the Port of Los Angeles had expressed interest in the potential for DeNOx to reduce emissions from ships coming into the port, as had a Norwegian energy company running large diesel generators. Those potential deals are on hold. Meanwhile, the state Department of Financial Institutions is investigating Firebaugh and Integrated for possible securities fraud.
Firebaugh remains defiant. Yes, he has a long court record. Yes, he still has a long list of people who want him to pay them back for real-estate deals that went south. Yet he remains confident that he is in the right here. "I cannot change my past," Firebaugh says, then corrects himself. "I cannot change the perception of my past."
lonstot@seattleweekly.com
