Bankrupt Bus Company Files Lawsuit Against Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx
A lawyer for Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx says he is confident that Foxx will prevail in a lawsuit brought against him that alleges he was paid nearly a half-million dollars by a bus company while mayor of Charlotte, North Carolina, but did no work for the company.
Foxx was paid $421,000 from 2009 to 2013 as the deputy general counsel for a now-bankrupt bus company, DesignLine USA. A lawsuit filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in North Carolina by Elaine Rudisill, a trustee for the company, seeks the return of that money.
According to the Associated Press, the suit alleges that Foxx spent little or no time at the company's offices and Foxx had no contact with outside lawyers employed by the company.
“The Debtors’ books and records do not reflect any communications between Defendant and the Outside Firms, nor do they reflect any activities or actions of Defendant in his role as Deputy General Counsel,” Rudisill wrote in the filing, according to the Charlotte Observer.
But Mark MacDougall, a lawyer for Foxx, said he is confident the suit will be resolved in Foxx's favor. "This is a routine adversary claim that is one of dozens and dozens that have been brought at the last minute as the statute of limitations is about to run [out]," he told AP.
DesignLine was a maker of hybrid-electric shuttle buses. While Foxx was mayor of Charlotte from 2009 to 2013, the city bought the buses for use at Charlotte Douglas International Airport. Foxx left DesignLine in July 2013 when he became transportation secretary, and DesignLine filed for bankrupty that same year.
One of DesignLine's primary investors, retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Buster Glosson, told AP on Aug. 12 he recruited Foxx to help attract business with other mayors.
"They have these big mayors' conferences once or twice a year, and he would expose the other mayors to this company he had in Charlotte that makes electric buses," Glosson said. "We know that he was effective because we got invitations to go give presentations in places where there was no other way we had to get a foot in the door."
