AeroVanti founder pleads poverty to avoid court fee in Medicare fraud case

Patrick Britton-Harr is claiming financial troubles that have him living off the charity of others as an explanation for why he was unable to pay in full a $575,000 fine imposed by a federal judge by April 30.

Britton-Harr, who is the founder of AeroVanti, the embattled Sarasota private air service company marketed to the rich and which is being sued by dozens, made the claim through an attorney in a court filing late Friday.

The amount he owes the court is equal to the sales price for an Annapolis, Maryland, house he was prohibited from selling but did anyway, court papers say.

“Mr. Britton-Harr has been using funds from a relative’s bank account to cover living expenses because he does not have any bank accounts. Nor does he receive steady income from his employment,” attorney David Barger writes in a status report filed Friday.

His family “have also been asking friends and family to help cover expenses.”

The report was in a response to Britton-Harr being found in contempt by a Maryland judge in March in a case where he and several companies he runs have been accused by federal prosecutors of committing Medicare fraud and are facing a $30 million default judgement.

The contempt ruling came after prosecutors said he ignored the case and failed to comply with court orders.

U.S. District Judge Ellen Hollander found him in contempt March 4 and ordered Britton-Harr to pay the $575,000 into the court registry by April 30 or submit a status report explaining why he could not come up with the funds.

He failed to do either, and a three-day extension was granted on April 30. The status report was filed Friday.

Barger, an attorney with the suburban Washington D.C. law firm Greenberg Traurig, did not respond to a request for comment Friday.

According to the status report, Britton-Harr did what he could to come up with the money but was unable to.

That includes exploring “whether he could place stock or assign shares of that stock in the court registry to be held in lieu of the balance.” Despite the effort, that was not an option and he is working on an arms-length sale of those shares where the proceeds will go directly to the registry.

The status report does not say what company the shares are for.

He also tried to sell a yacht he owns for $150,000, but the deal fell through May 1, the day after the deadline, after it was learned “that the potential buyer was withdrawing his offer due to health reasons.”

“Mr. Britton-Harr wants to purge the contempt and would repay the full amount immediately were he financially able to do so,” the status report says.

“Despite a present inability to pay, Mr. Britton-Harr has been making continuous and specific efforts to come up with funds to pay into the court registry. Mr. Britton-Harr has tried to sell personal assets not subject to any restraints in order to obtain such funds.”

Some of the money has been paid into the registry to satisfy what’s owed, though.

But like most things in the Britton-Harr and AeroVanti saga, the answers tend to raise more questions and reality and the truth are often at odds.

According to the status report and court records, $32,426 was paid into the registry April 30 but that money came not from Britton-Harr but from a company named Express Homebuyers.

Express, based just outside of Washington D.C., works with homeowners “to eliminate the uncertainty of their financial situation and sell their home fast.” Anne Arundel County property records show that’s the company bought the Annapolis home belonging to Britton-Harr in September for $575,000.

This is just days after the $30 million default judgement was issued and, by Barger’s own admission in the status report, Britton-Harr was prohibited from selling.

As for why Britton-Harr doesn’t have money despite selling the house, the status report says the proceeds were wired from the purchaser to a Truist bank account belonging to AeroVanti to pay company invoices. “This money never went (to) Mr. Britton Harr, and he never used any of the money for personal use,” the report says.

“This does not excuse either the sale of the property or the use of funds from that sale, but it explains why Mr. Britton-Harr can’t simply place the sale proceeds in the court registry.”

The timing of the sale in September and the proceeds going to AeroVanti is interesting because about three months earlier, in July, Britton-Harr left the company he founded and was replaced by former Manatee County Administrator Scott Hopes.

This was a time, too, when AeroVanti was facing an avalanche of state and federal lawsuits claiming it sold $150,000 memberships for planes that had been repossessed; allegations its fleet had been grounded while pouring money into pro sports and other sponsorships; and questions about the veracity of claims it raised $100 million from investors.

Hopes was fired Oct. 14 and was replaced by Britton-Harr’s brother Todd Britton-Harr who lasted three days.

Reports are that Patrick Britton-Harr has been back in charge since then.

It is unclear what happens next, how the judge will respond or what prosecutors will ask for.

But as far as Barger is concerned, the decision is pretty straightforward. Britton-Harr should be allowed to walk away without any further punishment.

“For these reasons and several others, additional remedies are not necessary,” he writes in the status report before laying out a legal argument and writing, “the court has already established an appropriate remedy for the contempt: Ordering Mr. Britton-Harr to pay $575,000 to the court’s registry as compensation for the act that gave rise to the contempt itself, selling the Cornhill (Street) property.”