Seeno responds to allegations in Nevada lawsuit
Developer: No effect on Benicia property
By Donna Beth Weilenman
Staff Reporter
Lawsuits related to a dispute between Albert Seeno Jr., his brother
Thomas and their former Nevada business partner, F. Harvey Whittemore,
won’t affect any plans for a large Benicia parcel owned by the Seeno
family, Seeno Jr. said Thursday.
In a letter to The Benicia Herald, Seeno wrote, “Please be advised
that the current issues with respect to our former business partner in
Nevada will have no impact, financial or otherwise, on any potential
development plans we may have in Benicia or any of our California or
Nevada homebuilding operations.”
Wingfield Nevada Group Holding Company, Tuffy Ranch properties and
the Foothills at Wingfield — three Seeno-interest Nevada companies —
filed suit Jan. 27 in Clark County, Nev., Business Court, accusing
Whittemore, a Nevada attorney and businessman, and his wife, Annette, of
misappropriating millions of dollars.
The suit said the Seenos noticed discrepancies in financial records about May 2010, and started an investigation.
That suit said Whittemore confessed to several years’ worth of theft,
diversion of funds, asset misappropriation and breach of fiduciary
duties, particularly money caretaking; as well as using company funds
for unauthorized personal matters and for political donations to
Whittemore’s advantage; embezzlement; and misuse of company assets.
“The egregious acts of Whittemore as alleged in this Complaint have
cost Wingfield, its affiliates, and the Seenos tens of millions of
dollars,” the suit said.
The Whittemores responded Feb. 1 with a suit of their own filed in
the U.S. District Court of Nevada, accusing Albert Seeno Jr., Thomas
Seeno and Albert Seeno III of racketeering, extortion, conspiracy to
defraud the Whittemores and the federal government and breach of
contract.
Their suit said they are owed about $30 million by the Wingfield
Nevada Group, and that their family has been damaged in excess of $60
million.
The suit also said Seeno has falsely accused the Whittemores of
embezzlement and other criminal activity, and forced the Whittemores out
of the Wingfield Nevada Group.
“For over a full year now, the Whittemores have been living under the
threat of death, serious bodily injury and/or criminal and civil
prosecution because of actions threatened by the Seenos,” the suit said.
Both suits have requested trials by jury.
In his letter to The Herald on Thursday, Seeno Jr. responded, “The
malicious claims that have been made from our former partner in a highly
sensationalized lawsuit and reported to the press are blatantly untrue
and offensive.
“This is an attempt by a desperate man to divert attention away from
the prior lawsuit filed against him for embezzlement of company funds
and his personal misdeeds. It is nothing more than a press release in
the form of a lawsuit.
“When the time is right in Benicia, we hope to work with the staff to
develop a project that will make economic sense and be a proud addition
to the city of Benicia.”
The Seenos are a family of developers. The late Albert Seeno Sr., the
son of an immigrant fisherman, died last year at 84; he started the
Albert D. Seeno Construction Company in 1938. It has built homes,
apartments and commercial centers around the Bay Area.
Two of his sons, Albert Jr. and Tom Seeno, took over that business
when their father began transitioning into retirement. While Seeno Jr.’s
letter said the Nevada lawsuits won’t affect plans for the local
property, there are no plans currently filed at City Hall for any
development on the Seeno parcel on Benicia’s north side.
In a letter sent June 29, 2010, to then-City Manager Jim Erickson,
Seeno Jr. announced he was withdrawing the applications originally filed
in 2005 for a business park he and his son, Seeno III, had proposed for
285 acres of their 527-acre parcel by Lake Herman Road.
That withdrawal came after years of meetings and discussions about
the project, including the imposition of about 200 conditions placed on
the project in a 2009 City Council resolution to which Seeno had agreed
to keep the project alive.
Seeno’s announcement came a few days before the Council was
considering terminating the application, citing difficulties in
communicating with the developer.
At its June 1, 2010 meeting, the Council said Seeno needed to support
city-initiated planning processes that includes his property, and that
he should propose a solution to Benicia’s loss of impact fees that have
increased during the past five years. Those were some of the conditions
of the application’s April 6 extension.
The extension also required the applicant to give the Council semi-annual updates.In a reply to the city’s action dated May 6, 2010, Seeno III promised
the progress reports, but the Council decided that was the only issue
his letter addressed.
Seeno III said in that letter the delay in developing the park didn’t
alter the impact fees imposed on the project, and that it “would be a
waste of state taxpayer resources” to embark on design or planning
procedures until the economy starts improving. Seeno said there might be alternative uses for the land.
But in a June 29, 2010 letter, Seeno Jr. accused Mayor Elizabeth
Patterson of “slanderous comments about me and my family on the public
record,” adding that “they certainly make me question why I or anyone
else would consider proceeding with a development project in the city of
Benicia.”
Once the letter was received, Patterson questioned its timing and the
withdrawal of the Benicia Business Park Master Plan and Vesting
Tentative Map applications. She said the timing was related to the 2011 city elections, when she would be running for re-election. “They don’t want a strong mayor who stands up to Seeno. They don’t
want a mayor who insists on protecting the hills, air and water, and
avoiding big-time traffic increases. And they don’t want a mayor who
asks for assurances in writing.” Patterson, who was opposed by then-Vice Mayor Alan Schwartzman in the
2011 race, won re-election, and Schwartzman returned to the Council to
complete his current term.
