Orange County Register columnist Frank Mickadeit featured the cross-examination of Snell & Wilmer partner Wayne Gross of a Chevron employee in July.

Below is the column.

The Orange County Register
By Frank Mickadeit
July 14, 2009

You may remember Mano Ghaneeian, the feisty and shrewd independent gas-station owner who a couple of months ago opened in San Juan Capistrano what I billed as the most state-of-the-art service station in Orange County.

Mano had outsmarted a fair number of oil companies to sneak in and lock up a location at the Ortega Highway interchange that will print money once Caltrans comes in and plows under his three competitors for a massive road project. Mano owns the business and the real estate and has a deal with Shell to use its brand.

You may also remember that I disclosed that I met Mano through my roommate, Wayne Gross, an attorney who represents Mano on a completely unrelated matter. Big Oil, namely Chevron USA, is trying to take away Mano’s other O.C. gas station.

Unlike his Shell station, Mano does not own the land under his Chevron station at the corner of Irvine Avenue and Bristol Street in Newport Beach, and Chevron wants to terminate the franchise agreement and take over the station, which does a reported $8 million a year in business. Chevron would net about $450,000 more a year from that location if he was out of the picture, Mano estimates.

Problem is, Chevron needs legitimate grounds to kick him out. So they’re suing Mano, claiming he lied about how much money he was making. The rent he pays is based on his revenue.

Last week, I was in U.S. District Judge David Carter’s courtroom, listening as Chevron’s star witness – Mano’s former bookkeeper – accused Mano of keeping two sets of books: one reflecting what he showed Chevron, the other showing his actual revenues and expenses.

It was a compelling tale the bookkeeper, Afsaneh Ehsani, told. Work orders for some shop repairs would disappear, or “fly away,” so Mano could hide the revenue, she alleged. During one month that I assume was supposed to be typical, Mano allegedly skimmed about $8,000. She had made copies of the allegedly fraudulent ledgers and turned them over to Chevron.

Then my roomie got up and laid into her with about 90 minutes of cross-examination. He got her to admit that she’d lied under oath before and that she took money under the table herself, to the tune of $1,000 a month she never reported in cash, and nearly an equal sum in other unreported benefits. It was also clear that the unreported income allowed her to qualify for certain federal housing benefits.

She was also asked why she bought Mano personal gifts, like a ring, and why she made him lunch almost every day. The implication: she was in love with Mano, and when he spurned her for her assistant(the delectable Farrah), she turned on him, falsifying books to cover her own skimming. “No!” Ehsani responded. “(It’s) lie after lie after lie!”

Did I mention that all the while a federal agent was sitting in the gallery behind me, taking this in?

This is a bench trial, so Carter alone will decide who is telling the truth and render a verdict in the coming weeks.

The “Eleven Lodges, Eleven Nights” tour opens Wednesday in San Clemente, followed by Thursday in Newport Beach and Friday in Mission Viejo. See www.ocregister.com/columns/frank/ for complete schedule.

The details I’m faced with are staggering, even though I have Kathleen and my driver-road manager, Stan, assisting. What’s kind of interesting is how some lodges are nonchalant to the point of almost making me feel I’m imposing (“We can’t start you at 7,” one lodge initially told me. “Members get upset if we push back bingo.”), while others are over-the-top hospitable.

Edward “Mr. Ed.” Davenport, the cook from the Newport lodge, called to make sure I thought the $8 he plans to charge for the BBQ filet mignon dinner was reasonable. Yes. And I’ll have five to go, please.

Judy Brooks of the Westminster lodge wanted to make sure I was actually going to be there all day Saturday because she’s invited various “Westminster officials” to meet me. I haven’t been able to reach you, Judy, but the answer is, yes – assuming you mean Westminster Abbey officials. I don’t know that I’ll be up to receiving commoners.