JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Employees of a Florida energy company that abruptly shut down nearly a dozen Northeast Florida gas stations last month told the I-TEAM they were misled by the company.
News4Jax is also learning of a court battle between the company, MNV Energy, based in Aventura, Florida, and a Jacksonville-based company that supplied its gas stations with fuel.
The I-TEAM visited 11 gas stations owned by MNV Energy that closed on June 20 and three other stores owned by the company that remain open, but aren't selling gas. Employees say they feel like the company kept them in the dark, and then abandoned them.
"It came abruptly, all at one time -- bam." said Sherry Armstrong, one of the employees terminated by the company.
Armstrong says she was terminated by MNV Energy on June 19, left only holding a letter from the company's CEO, Sergio Delmico, that said that MNV Energy experienced unforeseen circumstances.
MNV owns nearly 40 gas stations throughout Florida, the majority of them have contracts with Shell.
Suddenly without a paycheck, Armstrong and her son are struggling to make ends meet.
"Behind on your rent, on your lights and behind on your water. You can't buy toilet paper," she said.
"I was trying to save money to go to a school in Maryland," said Armstrong's 18-year-old son Donovan. He also worked for MNV, rotating shifts at two Orange Park gas stations, so the the sudden layoffs hit the family doubly hard.
Donovan said he saw signs internally that the company was in some kind of financial trouble. He says the company struggled to keep its convenience stores stocked with merchandise, cigarettes and gasoline.
First Coast Energy, the company that supplied fuel to MNV Energy’s gas stations, had also noticed issues with keeping merchandise in the stores.
According to federal court records, on May 25, First Coast Energy sent a letter to the MNV Energy stations stating they were terminating their agreement to supply the stations with gas, effective June 4.
The MNV Energy stations said that termination notice didn’t follow federal law, so they sued the supplier. First Coast Energy filed a counter suit alleging that the MNV Energy stations weren’t properly operated and claiming that the gas stations collectively owed $18 million under their agreements.
Donovan Armstrong said he's troubled most that management told him there was nothing wrong.
"I'm not mad so much because they owe me money, but it's because of the impact that they've had on not just my financial life, but everyone else's. I know I'm not the only one."
These two employees said in the weeks leading up to the store closures, the gas stations where they worked raised their prices to more than 20 cents above the average. They said it was as if they knew that trouble was ahead.
"They owe me for two weeks, they owe him for one," Sherry Armstrong said of her son.
The I-TEAM tried to contact MNV Energy headquarters again Monday, but the lines are always busy. We also contacted the attorney for First Coast Energy, but he declined to comment.
