O.C. treasurer being sued for mismanagement

Orange County Treasurer Chriss Street is being sued for $7 million for alleged mismanagement of the bankruptcy of a Delaware truck trailer manufacturer, according to documents filed Friday in Delaware’s federal bankruptcy court.

The suit alleges that while Street managed the bankruptcy trust for Fruehauf Trailer Corp., he improperly pumped up his salary, charged personal expenses — including vacations and Botox treatments — to the trust and tried to create a trailer manufacturing enterprise by buying two other companies, “both of which failed in spectacular fashion,” according to the suit.

It’s not the first time Street has been accused by Daniel Harrow, the plaintiff in the $7-million suit.

Street headed the Fruehauf trust from 1998 to 2005, and Harrow took over the trust after Street’s departure.

In March 2006, Harrow filed a report in bankruptcy court that accused Street of mismanaging the trust and squandering at least $11.7 million of its money.

The lawsuit is “the culmination of those concerns,” said attorney David L. Finger, who is Harrow’s Delaware attorney. “The money that would be recovered would go to the creditors.”

Street, a Newport Beach resident, was running for county treasurer when the allegations first surfaced last year.

Although several county officials pulled their endorsements over the issue, he still won election in June and Orange County supervisors even appointed him to the post early once it became vacant.

A spokesman for Street declined to comment before upcoming court proceedings.

“Mr. Street’s not interested in fighting this in the public domain. He’s asked for his day in court since this whole thing began, so we’re going to withhold comment until we get our day in court,” spokesman Brett Barbre said.

Orange County Supervisor John Moorlach, the former treasurer who backed Street to succeed him, said he wasn’t concerned about Harrow’s allegations last year, and the lawsuit is more of the same.

Moorlach said he talked with Street during the campaign and was satisfied with his responses to the allegations.

“I have been in close contact on all these matters with Mr. Street,” Moorlach said. “I have not come to a point where I feel I should be disconcerted.”