PORTLAND — A litigation trust made up of former FairPoint Communications creditors is blaming Verizon Communications for FairPoint’s bankruptcy.
In a $2 billion fraudulent transfer lawsuit filed in North Carolina, the FairPoint litigation trust claims FairPoint went bankrupt because of its “disastrous” $2.3 billion purchase of Verizon’s landline and Internet operations in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont in 2008. FairPoint filed for bankruptcy 18 months after the acquisition.
The complaint alleges that Verizon lured FairPoint into the deal and dealt it a bad hand, resulting in FairPoint buying “inferior assets that had no future.” The suit says FairPoint exhibited a blend of naiveté and optimism on its part, but that FairPoint executives felt trapped by the time they saw the writing on the wall.
Verizon is calling the lawsuit meritless.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.