Bill Koch Holds Kirby Martensen (Oxbow Employee) Captive?

Today, I just learned of this bizarre news story from Oxbow Energy (especially for a Friday afternoon). Oxbow says it began a year long initiation beginning in March of 2011 to investigate whether a certain executive was trying to defraud the company of $40 million. Oxbow claimed an employee named Kirby Martensen was getting kick backs.  Martensen who worked for Oxbow Corporation for 16 years relieved millions in compensation and bonuses. As you may know I have covered Bill Koch in numerous places in his profile here, his school days, and the $1.3 billion family lawsuit with Charles and David Koch.

In this news story it is alleged that Kirby Martensen who was an executive for Oxbow Energy was held captive by Bill Koch. Martensen was promoted to be the senior vice president of Asia. Interestingly more than 75% of Oxbow's fuel grade petroleum exports profits come from just the Asia operations. Martensen is claiming that Oxbow was trying to relocate part of the company in order to evade $200 million in taxes.What is interesting however and maybe something Bill Koch can use in his defense is the fact that Martensen himself was alleged to self dealing, stealing, and breaching a fiduciary duty. Koch did a review of thousands and found Martensen was worried about if Oxbow was actually doing things that were legal.

Martensen claims that Koch tried to discredit him and used "false pretenses". The story gets a little stranger when Koch drove Martensen to Bear Ranch for the night and had breakfast the following morning. Koch showed Martensen around his private city. Martensen was then interviewed for his peer review and which lasted several hours and seems was a meeting to tell him he was going to be terminated. After this he was escorted to pack up his stuff and a sheriff wasthere to escort him out. After this the story gets bizarre as Martensen claims he was kidnapped and taken to the Denver airport for a 2 in the morning flight on March 23, 2012 on a private plan that went from Denver to Oakland, California. Martensen then basically left refusing to go to the Marriot Courtyard Hotel. In this whole process Martensen claims he suffered from anxiety, fear, humiliation, and distress.The official charges are false imprisonment and civil conspiracy. Martensen has already hired John Houston Scott (because three names just makes you sound smart) from San Francisco to defend him.

Bill Koch has a history of losing court cases. He lost the $1.3 billion case against his brothers. He lost the case against the wine he claimed was counterfeit wine. Last year he was in a lawsuit for real estate having to do with his private school. I haven't even touched the numerous lawsuits he has got into with his love life. In general Koch is on the wrong side of the lawsuit however the accusations made seem like something out of a John Grisham novel and the truth remains to be seen. A book could probably just be written on Bill Koch's court decisions. No question though Bill Koch is an interesting man and which is why I continue to blog about him.