SNOW HILL – Dissension among members of the extended Trimper family has led to a $245 million civil suit with legal documents alleging financial misconduct and fraud.
Represented by attorney R. Wayne Pierce of Annapolis, plaintiffs Antoinette Bruno, Wendy Delamater and Joyce Trimper filed the civil suit, which seeks a jury trial, against defendants J. Douglas Trimper, Brooks Trimper, the Estate of Chris Trimper, Linda Trimper Holloway, Stephanie Trimper Lewis and more than a dozen associated amusement corporations, namely Trimper Amusements, Inc., Windsor Resort, Inc., Trimper’s Rides of Ocean City, Inc., Trimper’s Playland, Inc. and Trimper’s Tidal Wave, Inc. All the named plaintiffs and defendants are shareholders of Trimper corporations.
The 39-page civil suit alleges misappropriation, corporate waste, self-dealing and fraudulent concealment. There are nine counts listed in the civil suit, which was filed March 23 in Worcester County Circuit Court. Seven of the nine counts in the case seek a total of $105 million in compensatory damages and $140 million in punitive damages.
The nine counts listed in the civil suit with the dollar amounts sought, if any, include fraud, $15 million in compensatory damages and $20 million in punitive damages; civil conspiracy, $15 million in compensatory damages and $20 million in punitive damages; aiding and abetting, $15 million in compensatory damages and $20 million in punitive damages; breach of fiduciary duties, $15 million in compensatory damages and $20 million in punitive damages; violation of directors’ statutory standard of care under Corporations and Association Article 2-405.1, $15 million in compensatory damages and $20 million in punitive damages; conversion, $15 million in compensatory damages and $20 million in punitive damages; demand for accounting; shareholders’ derivative action for conversation and waste of corporate assets; and shareholders’ derivative action-fraud, $15 million in compensatory damages and $20 million in punitive damages.
“This is a civil action for legal and equitable relief, including damages, imposition of a constructive trust and stockholder derivate claims,” the suit reads. “… Beginning in or about 1995 and continually until early 2020, some or all of the defendants … have engaged in a continuous course of wrongful conduct and breaches of fiduciary duties designed to surreptitiously and systematically misappropriate and waste of the Corporations and engage in self-dealing.”
The plaintiffs maintain in the civil suit the defendants, who managed the daily operations of the seasonal Trimper businesses from 1995 to 2020, intentionally concealed important and accurate financial reports from the board.
“In approximately 2009, (defendant) finally made one year of the Corporations’ ledger available to the Plaintiffs,” the suit reads. “Access to this information allowed the Plaintiffs to determine that funding from the Corporations had been used to purchase two vehicles, and that the vehicles were titled in the personal names of (defendants). Plaintiffs brought this misappropriation to the attention of Windsor’s Board of Directors, who chose to terminate Defendant Doug Trimper, but he continued to have an active role in managing the Corporations.”
In early 2020, the majority of the shareholders voted out a group of Trimper family members, the named defendants, who had been in control for many years. Neither of the named plaintiffs or defendants listed in the civil suit are currently serving in operations or management of Trimper Rides. Bruno, a resident of New York and a minority shareholder since 2010, led the Trimper operation in Ocean City from March 2020 until December 2021 when the board voted for a change in leadership. Trimper Rides has been in operation in downtown Ocean City for 129 years.
When management operations changed hands in 2020, analyzation of the books led to concerns over financial malfeasance, including skimming of cash operations, according to the civil suit. It reads, “The point-of-sale system digitized the business on electronic ‘thrill cards,’ removed 90% of cash transactions from the business, tracked individual sales and individual rides ridden, and made cash shortages in prior years obvious. The cash shortages also became apparent because the pandemic forced the Corporations to bring in independent but similar rides in 2020 and 2021, which allowed the Corporations to compare independent performance data to the performance when Defendants … individually, and in concert with each other, had previously operated the Corporations.”
The civil suit continues, “Plaintiffs … allege that Defendants … have acted fraudulently, including intentional, deliberate, and fraudulent acts and misrepresentations and acts of concealment to and from the Corporations and their shareholders. These fraudulent acts were undertaken with the intent to cause financial injury to the Corporations and the other shareholders and to unjustly personally enrich the Defendants …. The fraudulent acts of Defendants … have included, inter alia, skimming of corporate cash, concealing corporate revenue, and representing fraudulently that all money spent by the Corporations wise for a legitimate business purpose. Defendants also fraudulently concealed, inter alia, their acts of self-dealing, self-interest in transactions, and conversion of corporate assets for their personal use and benefit.”
The civil suit ranges from general claims to specific accusations, including under the fraudulent concealment, “During a meeting in approximately 2009, Plaintiff … confronted Defendant … that he and other Defendants were driving the Corporations broke. Defendant … denied this, stating that the Corporations were on an even keel, neither making money nor losing money. On information and belief, Defendants … concealed their actions by creating zombie Corporations – profit was misappropriated, but the residue was sufficient for the Corporations to keep walking and not draw scrutiny.”
