Ex-Chief of Trash Firm Could End Up Owing Edison Utility $300,000 : Moorpark: Electric company officials say part of the estate received unmetered power for 18 years but doubt it was intentional.

The former chief of eastern Ventura County’s largest trash hauling firm could owe the electric company more than $300,000 for 18 years of electric power he received but didn’t pay for at his Moorpark estate, a Southern California Edison spokesman said Tuesday.

Some of the electricity used at a sprawling compound owned by Manuel Asadurian Sr. was tapped without the Edison company’s knowledge, said John Vitali, manager of the department that investigates energy theft from the utility.

Although the family has been paying its monthly electric bill, Edison company officials recently discovered that a large amount of electricity used at the ranch bypassed the company’s meters, Vitali said.

“There was a portion of the ranch that was not metered,” he said. “In this particular case it appears that it was not intentional.”

The Asadurian family controls G.I. Industries, an east county firm that collects about $16 million in fees from area residents and businesses for rubbish collection each year.

The co-founder and former chairman of the waste hauling firm, Manuel Asadurian Sr. shares the gated ranch property with family members, who live in five residences.

All the meters were installed by the electric company when the ranch was built in the late 1970s, said Matthew Fairshter, a family friend and former legal adviser.

“It’s clearly [Edison’s] equipment,” Fairshter said. “They put it all in. It’s all their work, and it’s all noted in the permits.”

Fairshter, who initially represented Asadurian in a personal bankruptcy case, said he had seen receipts for monthly electric bills paid by the family.

“They pay their bills,” he said, estimating that the Asadurians paid from $1,500 to $1,800 for electricity each month. The family declined to comment.

He questioned the $300,000 figure that Edison company officials estimate that Asadurian owes.

“They are going back 18 to 20 years,” Fairshter said. “This is an estimate that has no bearing on reality.”

Because Asadurian is under personal bankruptcy protection, Edison will have to wait with other creditors to collect any money it may be owed, he said.

Company officials said the Asadurian family is cooperating fully with the inquiry, allowing Edison officials access to the property.

At this stage in their investigation, officials want to nail down “a fair billing,” Vitali said.

One of the biggest variables will be whether the Asadurians indeed were unaware that they were receiving electricity that they did not pay for, he said.

If the bypass was intentional the family could be liable for the cost incurred by the company in its investigation.

Once a figure is nailed down, a reasonable payment schedule will be laid out and no interest will be charged on the money owed, Vitali said.

Although unusual, the huge electric bill is not unheard of, he said. Southern California Edison serves about 4.1 million customers and loses about $35 million a year in energy theft--both intentional and unintentional, according to Vitali.

Tips from neighbors help investigators nab most of those that are caught tapping into Edison’s power grid illegally.

“We probably get the largest number of cases from our own field personnel,” he said. “There are so many ways to tap into the grid illegally, I couldn’t begin to tell you.”

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FYI

Anyone with tips on unmetered electricity use should call Southern California Edison at 800-227-3901.