AUBURN — A Lewiston paving company that shuttered its business recently owes a Rhode Island company more than $1.57 million and committed fraud, according to a lawsuit.

R.C. & Sons Paving bought “very substantial quantities” of liquid asphalt from American Liquid Asphalts over the past couple of years. The Lewiston company combined the liquid asphalt with other materials to make paving asphalt used in road, sidewalk and parking lot construction, attorneys for the Rhode Island company wrote in a complaint filed recently in Androscoggin County Superior Court.

American and R.C. & Sons had a contract legally binding the local company to receive shipments of liquid asphalt, the suit says. The Rhode Island company upheld its part of the agreement, while the Maine company didn’t, according to the complaint.

R.C. & Sons failed to pay for roughly $1.57 million in liquid asphalt deliveries, the suit says. In May, R.C. & Sons wrote 13 checks to American, drawn on an account at Androscoggin Bank in Lewiston. Of those, nine “bounced” due to insufficient funds, the suit says.

The Rhode Island company didn’t deposit the remaining four checks into its account at Bank of America. The 13 checks totaled $266,500, an amount that served as a false inducement for American to continue its deliveries to R.C. & Sons, the suit says.

American’s lawyers claim that the conduct engaged in by R.C. & Sons “knowing that it did not have sufficient funds with which to ‘cover’ such checks was fraudulent.” The Maine company is liable, separately or with its officers, shareholders and principals, the suit says. The Rhode Island company plans to pursue criminal charges against the principals of the Maine company for the amount of the 13 checks, the suit says.

American is suing for breach of contract, fraud and unjust enrichment.

No one was at R.C. & Sons’ offices at 924 Main St. on Tuesday, and the main door was locked. A neighbor said he hadn’t seen any activity at that office for three weeks. An invoice was stuffed in a crack between door and jamb.

A Sun Journal story last week featured more than a dozen displaced workers from the company who were seeking help finding new jobs. One of those workers said he was told a week earlier that the company would close for only a day. He and others were told to pick up their paychecks later in the day, then later again. At 3 p.m. that day, the company’s owner told them there was no money and the company was closing.

Workers said they had lost a couple of weeks’ wages. Several workers said they had concerns that money deducted from earlier paychecks that was designated for their 401(k) retirement accounts may not have been deposited by the company.

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