OMNI Energy Services Corp. News
OMNI Dismisses Executive and Defaults on $2.7 Million Note Payment, Says Toce Law Firm
LAFAYETTE, La., Feb. 19 PRNewswire — OMNI Energy Services Corp. has terminated Robert H. "Bobby" Rhyne, Jr., OMNI's Vice President of Sales and Marketing. Rhyne becomes the third senior executive whose departure has been announced since OMNI terminated Executive Vice President Darcy Klug by placing him on "extended leave" in December. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer James C. Eckert announced that he will leave the company on June 30.
Like Klug, who has sued OMNI in federal court claiming the company owes him $16.8 million in deferred compensation, Rhyne says OMNI has failed to make a scheduled $2.67 million note payment to him and his former business partner Brent Trauth. In February 2006, Rhyne and Trauth sold OMNI the company they founded, Preheat, Inc., for a combination of cash, promissory notes and OMNI common stock.
After the sale, Rhyne became OMNI's head of sales and marketing, and Preheat has performed well for the company. Rhyne was part of the management team with Eckert and Klug that turned the company around. When Rhyne joined OMNI, its stock was trading at $2.76 per share. By summer of 2007, share prices hit $12.76. In the year before Rhyne's termination, OMNI spurned suitors who were willing to buy all OMNI stock for prices ranging to $14.50/share. The stock closed Friday at $4.08.
OMNI gave Rhyne no valid reason for his termination. When Rhyne would not agree to take promissory note payments over years, and while he was discussing terms for his amicable departure, OMNI abruptly terminated him on Friday, February 8, the date the $2.67 million promissory note was due to Rhyne and Trauth.
Preheat is one of the leading oilfield rental and service companies, providing specialized rental equipment on 50 percent of the drilling rigs operating in the Gulf of Mexico. Rhyne and Trauth sold Preheat to OMNI for about $22.5 million, and the OMNI subsidiary is now worth at least $35 million and is one of OMNI's most profitable business units. The promissory note OMNI defaulted on was in partial payment for that purchase.
Rhyne's attorney Andre' F. Toce said, "Mr. Rhyne and Mr. Trauth sold Preheat to OMNI in good faith. Despite the millions of dollars in profit OMNI has made on the purchase of Preheat, OMNI fired Bobby and defaulted on the note.
SOURCE The Toce Firm, A.P.L.C.
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