Rich CEO Caught Poisoning Neighboring Trees Next to $3.5 Million Mansion to “Improve View” – Couple Faces Jail

A NEW criminal investigation has been launched against a wealthy CEO who was caught poisoning his neighbor’s trees to improve the view outside his $3.5 million mansion.

In 2022, Amelia Bond sprayed two kilograms of Tebuthiuron, a lethal herbicide, on trees belonging to Lisa Gorman, offering to pay to remove them when they began to die.

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After his scheme was revealed, Bond was ordered to pay Gorman $1.5 million in restitution, but now the Maine attorney general is considering criminal charges after the poison leaked into a nearby park and beach.

“Someone dumb enough to poison trees, right next to the ocean should be processed as far as I’m concerned,” resident Paul Hodgson told Associated press.

Bond, who was the former CEO of the St. Louis Foundation, which manages charitable giving and has more than $500 million in assets, brought the herbicide from Missouri in 2021.

She applied the poison to oak trees on a beachfront property owned by Lisa Gorman, wife of the late Leon Gorman, president of LL Bean, authorities said.

Gorman became suspicious when trees and large areas of vegetation in her yard began to die.

She reached out to Bartlett Tree Experts for an assessment, and landscapers took soil samples that revealed two oak trees had been treated with an herbicide that spread to other trees.

Local authorities also carried out testing in November 2022 and spoke to Bond, whose holiday home is up the hill from Gorman Lawn.

Bond admitted using the poison, saying Gorman’s trees obscured his view of Laite Beach and Camden Harbor.

She and her husband, Arthur Bond III, an architect, said $4,500 to resolve violations with the Maine Pesticide Control Board and $180,000 to resolve violations with the city.

The couple also had to shell out $30,000 for additional environmental testing and paid Gorman $1.5 million in a settlement.

‘ATROCIOUS’

Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey announced an investigation following growing anger from the small town.

“Wealth and power do not always go hand in hand with intelligence, education and morals,” said Tom Hedstrom, chairman of the Select Board.

“This was atrocious and rude and whatever other word you want to use to describe abhorrent behavior.”

State Rep. Vicki Doudera said she has plans to resolve the $4,500 fine that the Maine Pesticide Control Board was authorized to assess.

“It makes me so livid,” she said. “This situation, the minute I heard about it, I thought, ‘Wow! These people are going to get slapped in the face. That’s just not right.”

Tebuthiuron was used in 2010 by an irate Alabama soccer fan to kill the Toomer’s Corner oaks at Auburn University after the Crimson Tide lost to their archrivals.

Harvey Updyke admitted to poisoning the trees and was arrested for the act.

The Bonds’ attorney told the Associated Press that his clients “continue to take the allegations against them seriously.”

“They continue to cooperate with the city of Camden, Maine, and the Gormans, as they have for the past two years,” he said.

However, Hodgson said the Bonds were just some of the out-of-towners who tried to illegally improve their waterfront.

“They only pay the fine because they have enough money,” he said.

“This is the city we live in.”