March 22, 2012: revised March 23: Ralston MacDonnell, founder and CEO of the MacDonnell Group of companies has been a "frequent flyer" in the Nova Scotia court system, being sued by a who's who of Nova Scotia firms. Over the past ten years, MacDonnell's engineering, security and real estate operations have been sued 28 times and MacDonnell himself has been the subject of eight suits, some of them also naming his wife.
Most recently, the beleaguered entrepreneur has been sued by Pitney Bowes, Worker's Compensation Board, two law firms, Credit Union Atlantic, Francis Engineering, Irving Oil, Joneljim Concrete, among others.
MacDonnell just recently walked away from a contract to operate the bottle recovery and electronics depot at Bowood in Shelburne, after consistently failing to have on hand refund monies for returned bottles and after having the power shut off by the power corporation. He was advised by the RRFB that his contract would not be renewed in May. Acording to records produced by RRFB, MacDonnell is likely to have generated more than $25,000 per year profit from the operation, which is now under tender for a new operator.
MacDonnell bought the former boys school property under questionable circumstances, when SWSDA CEO Frank Anderson said that MacDonnell had put an offer in on the property directly to Anderson while on Halifax, despite the published terms of sale requiring offers be submitted in Shelburne. The sale was reportedly part of the investigation conducted by the Office of the Ombudsman of SWSDA's operations. Anderson was terminated and the organization slid into a $2 million bankruptcy.
MacDonnell and his wife were recently sued for non-payment of a large credit card account and have had at least one of their homes listed in a foreclosure auction. He purchased the Bowood site through a private placement loan from a Halifax businessman, who now carries an $800,000 note against the property, with MacDonnell's residence as additional collateral.
Much of the land on the property has been clear cut and the buildings are reportedly in general disrepair. The property is listed as for sale by Cushman Wakefield for $1.5 million. That price would yield a profit of more than 200% from the original price. A Shelburne businessman acting as an agent for a prospective buyer said that his property consultant said it was "not worth more than $50,000." A telephone number listed for renting commercial space at Bowood has been disconnected.
The MacDonnell Group's most recent business personas include security and port security training, entertainment events promotion and producing and promoting high-visibility trade shows and conferences.
In December, 2011, MacDonnell began promoting a weight-loss panacea called Visalus, from a web site called http://mgnet.ca/.
