Hartford Business Journal

www.HartfordBusiness.com • October 5, 2020 • Hartford Business Journal 13 GOODSPEED MUSICALS for goodspeed a Virtual Gala Concert October 29 Shakin' the Blues Away: A Virtual Gala Concert for Goodspeed is going to be an event you won't want to miss. This moving and uplifting evening of song and dance was filmed throughout the Goodspeed Opera House and features performances from an incredibly talented cast of Goodspeed and Broadway stars. Thanks to a generous donor, all tickets purchased and any additional gifts received during the event will be matched dollar for dollar. KLEA BLACKHURST BRYAN THOMAS HUNT SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES AVAILABLE LEARN MORE AT goodspeed.org/gala GIZEL JIMÉNEZ RASHIDRA SCOTT KELLY SHEEHAN ALYSHA UMPHRESS NICHOLAS WARD or their retail price, but said there's plenty of production capacity at the 210,000-square-foot Texas factory owned by Titan Production Equipment. Ostvik said Ecogensus is talking to private equity firms and other potential investors as it seeks to raise additional capital. Boosting his confidence is a recent study of how Ecogensus' biofuel performs in coal plants. That study, conducted by a German company called Uniper, found that the biofuel is technically suitable for use in large power plants with little or no capital outlay required to modify existing equipment, though Uniper did acknowledge some potential challenges that could arise, such as deposits form- ing inside a boiler (which is known as "slagging"), for certain facilities. The Skelos trial Ostvik is working to make waves in the alternative energy industry, but he's also made headlines he'd prefer to put behind him. In 2010, Ostvik left Lockheed and joined an Arizona-based company called Abtech that would eventually be embroiled in a New York state government corruption probe. Abtech in 2012 was working to win government wastewater-man- agement contracts in the Empire State and hired the son of then-New York Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos as a consultant. Adam Skelos reported to Ostvik, who was executive vice president of corporate strategy and business development. In 2015, federal prosecutors ar- rested the Skeloses on corruption charges, alleging they secured more than $200,000 in illegal payments from Abtech and several other com- panies "through implicit and explicit representations that Dean Skelos would use his official position to ben- efit those who made the payments, and punish those who did not." Dean Skelos had helped Abtech se- cure a $12-million contract in Nassau County, and later pursued legislation and additional funding that could ben- efit the company. Ostvik, who was visited by FBI agents a few months before the Skeloses were arrested, agreed to cooperate with the investigation and testify at the trial. He avoided any potential criminal charges as a result, according to a transcript of his court testimony delivered in 2015 and again in 2018 during a retrial. The Skeloses were found guilty in both trials, and each was sentenced in 2018 to about four years in prison. "I am proud of my role helping the government in their prosecution," Ostvik told HBJ. "It also proved to be an invaluable learning experience for me, and I think it was important that justice was served in that case." $100M civil RICO lawsuit Ostvik's name has been absent from New York newspapers for a few years now, but he's not avoided the courthouse. In May, Ostvik filed a $100-million lawsuit against several of his former attorneys — including general counsel Mat- thew Pacella and a Chicago- area law firm called Edelson whose attorneys had been his outside counsel — alleging they had conspired to extort him for payments and control of his business ventures by threatening to release sensitive personal informa- tion he had shared in confidence. The suit also alleges that Pacella had physically pushed Ostvik and told him he had an uncle in the mafia. The complaint alleges violations of the civil version of federal crimi- nal racketeering laws created to prosecute organized crime. "We brought that action to put a stop to the attorneys' misuse of personal and privileged information as well as certain other breaches of their professional obligations to me and my businesses," Ostvik said. He declined further comment on the case. The defendants in the Ecogensus lawsuit have called the allegations "objectively and provably false" and have filed motions asking the court to sanction Ecogensus and its attorneys, and to dismiss the complaint. Ajay Shah, Assistant Professor, Ohio State University An Ecogensus EGS-5000L unit. PHOTO | CONTRIBUTED

• Cover