Cerberus Capital Management, an investment firm founded by Trump-loving billionaire Stephen Feinberg, has sued a consultant, accusing him of defrauding the company out of thousands of dollars in business meals that never happened.
Cerberus started working with consultant David Boutry in 2021, paying him $1.5 million to advise on sourcing debt financing and other services, according to a lawsuit filed Monday in New York Supreme Court.
The contract allowed for reimbursement of certain business expenses, the complaint states. But when Cerberus conducted a review of the expenses Boutry submitted, it found 18 instances in which the consultant claimed to have been at a business meal with someone who was not there.
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The meals included lavish dinners at restaurants like L’Escale, the waterfront French eatery in Greenwich, Connecticut, where Boutry allegedly requested a $616 reimbursement for a meeting with an investment banker. Contacted by Cerberus, however, the banker said he had not attended the dinner and was on Long Island that day. Boutry also claimed to have attended a $435 dinner at Ai Fiori in New York and a $374 dinner at Townhouse in Greenwich with investment bankers who, according to the complaint, told Cerberus they were not there.
Stephen Feinberg, co-founder and co-chief executive officer of Cerberus, is seen on the company website.
Florence Lo/ReutersConfronted by the company in June, Boutry sent an email apology saying he was “obviously devastated” and “completely regretful,” according to the complaint.
“I promise you there was nothing nefarious, just a ton of neglect and sloppiness on my part,” he wrote. “That is obviously on me and I will forever live with the consequences.”
The company claims Boutry also later identified a number of other improper claims he submitted, including a nearly $900 “family lunch” and a $600 “personal” dinner. An outside investigator hired by the firm found an additional $8,500 in “invalid” expenses Boutry submitted, including a nearly $2,500 charge for his company’s holiday party and 21 monthly cell phone bills.
Cerberus also identified several other alleged breaches of contract, including that Boutry’s company, BEPD, was not organized as a limited liability company until the day after he signed the contract. Boutry and his employees also presented themselves as employees of Cerberus—some of them even stating as much on their LinkedIn pages—despite only being contractors, the complaint claims.
Cerberus terminated the consulting agreement shortly after discovering these discrepancies. But Boutry is now claiming not to have breached the contract and is threatening to sue for tens of millions of dollars he says he is owed, according to the complaint. The company is seeking a judgment stating it properly terminated the contract, as well as monetary damages.
Cerberus owned a major national security contractor called DynCorp until 2020, and Feinberg previously served as head of Donald Trump’s President’s Intelligence Advisory Board. The billionaire also donated nearly $1.5 million to pro-Trump PACs in 2016, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics.
Editors note: This story has been updated to reflect that Cerberus sold DynCorp in 2020.
