Oakes Farms owner, Alfie Oakes, and vice president, Steven Veneziano, are facing accusations related to a sports betting website. The two of them are involved in a rather unusual lawsuit, which was filed earlier in August in Collier County Circuit Court.
The accusations came from Andrew Moste, who believes Oakes Farms and Veneziano have unfairly obtained money through Moste’s sports betting account with DraftKings. According to Moste, Veneziano placed bets through his account with the sports betting website but the taxes on winnings were left for Moste to pay.
Moste is blaming Veneziano for his betting-related problems since the time he was working at Oakes Farms, he was asked to allow Veneziano access to his DraftKings account. Moste claims he agreed to give his account as he could not refuse his boss at that time. Later on, Moste started noticing that large amounts of his linked bank account were withdrawn for deposits and winning-related fees at the sports betting website.
According to Moste, he warned Veneziano to stop using his account but he continued making bets through his DraftKings profile without Moste’s knowledge, using Oakes Farms’ bank account to underwrite his betting.
The defendants’ representative, Steven Bracci, stated that Moste’s claims were groundless and he had willingly agreed on opening a DraftKings account together with Veneziano. The defendant also argues that he was never the plaintiff’s boss but rather Moste was an independent contractor of the company. Bracci argued that the complaint is just an attempt for Moste to obtain a settlement payout.
The Controversial Owner of Oakes Farms Facing the Accusations
Alfie Oakes is a controversial personality who owns Oakes Farms, Food and Thought, and Sees to Table in Naples. The most recent controversy he was involved in was the violation of the mask order in Collier County. He argued that forcing him to wear a mask was unconstitutional, and discriminatory and he decided to file a lawsuit against the order.
The order requires residents of Collier County to wear masks or other facial coverings when there is no possibility to keep a social distance. This is one of the measures that is taken to help slow down the spread of the coronavirus. Oakes, however, claims that the virus is just a “hoax” and refuses to force his employees to wear masks unless they want to. Yet another controversial comment Oakes has recently made was related to the Black Lives Matter demonstration, claiming that according to him all lives should matter.
In the civil lawsuit filed by Moste, the main target is Veneziano who was working at Oakes Farms at that time. Moste requests to be paid over $181,000 in damages from Veneziano and Oakes, as well as any other compensation that the court decides to be fair. Veneziano claims that Moste changed his statement multiple times to claim a monetary settlement, which was based on false accusations. Oakes also defended himself, using a similar statement about the plaintiff changing his statement way too many times.
