Trial date set in $70 million civil fraud lawsuit

A trial date has been set in a Collier County lawsuit where several overseas oil and gas sector companies accused a German man living in Naples of an intricate $70 million fraud — claims the resident denies. 

The February 2021 trial date comes 30 months after a group of plaintiffs, including Austrian-based Petro Welt Trading and Russian-based KAToil LLC, filed the lawsuit in the 20th Judicial Circuit. The lawsuit accuses the defendant, Edward Brinkmann, of artificially marking up prices of various goods ordered by a network of foreign oil and gas sector companies he worked for as head of procurement. Brinkmann’s company, Naples-based Majab Development LLC, is also named as a defendant.