An implementation of the public service regulatory authority began to see a company owned by state senator John Fonfara, D-Hartford, at the end of last year to determine whether it operated illegally as an unlicensed business in the electricity market of the Connecticut’s third parties.
This investigation is not previously linked to the long lawmaker-is the last turn in a drama that surrounds the fundamental financial connections with some energy-related companies, while it requires the nominee Ned Lamont in a place on the service regulatory board.
While Pura has not accused Fonfara and his society of wrongdoing, the investigation highlights the possible ethical confusion he may face as a regulator.
Lamont’s office announced Planet last month to appoint Fonfara in one of the two open places on board as part of an agreement with lawmakers to advance its reappointment of current authority leader Marissa Gillett.
The deal hit a lump last week after reporting revealed that Fonfara was previously involved with another business that raised more than $ 1 million from Pura. On Monday, Lamont told reporters that Fonfara would need further verification, but did not withdraw his plans to appoint the legislator.
“We have to go through the background control and verification and everything that goes with it. We need to see more to know more,” Lamont Rob Blanchard spokesman said on Wednesday when asked about the latest investigation.
“We certainly hope these issues will be resolved,” he added.
The company at the center of the investigation, my LLC supply manager, advertises a service to “constantly” monitor the Connecticut electricity market and automatically passes power customers to a new supplier whenever a better rate is available.
The cost of this service varies between $ 19.95 and $ 49.95 per year depending on customer use, according to the company’s website.
Unlike people in countries with fully regulated energy markets, customers in Connecticut are able to buy and compare norms from different suppliers while they have electricity delivered through traditional energy, Eversource and United Illuminking services.
Fundfara told Mirror Connecticut that most electrical customers are paying a lot using third -party suppliers, and he said his company simply helps those people find the best agreements in the supply of their bills using data available.
My supply manager was officially formed in December 2023 by Fonfara, a few months after another of his businesses, Wattifi Inc., folded amidst a dispute with Pura Over Fees were ordered to pay service services to cover its costs to design a new format for customer bills.
Fonfara, who has served in the General Assembly since the 1980s and previously led the Legislature’s Energy and Technology Committee, did not require a license for its new company with Pura, which oversees the electrical markets of third parties of the state.
In an interview Wednesday late, Senator insisted that his company’s work fell out of scope of the regulations and licensing requirements because he did not contract or worked directly with third -party energy suppliers.
“All my customers, I serve individually,” Fonfara said, adding that he has a “small but growing” basis of less than 1,000 customers.
“I’m not a supplier. I’m not a mediator. I’m not a collector … My only compensation is from my customers, never from no one else,” he said. “Whoever says I am a collector, is fake.”
Fonfara added that he was unaware of the investigation into his company and was not contacted by Pura for his business practices.
But e -mail taken from CT Mirror indicate that Fonfara was warned last year that he was potentially violating the rules for so -called electrical aggregators who represent service customers and negotiate contracts with suppliers on behalf of those clients.
Staff with the Consumer Council office, which serves as a lawyer for Connecticut service customers, told Fonfara in September 2024 that the business model for my supply manager is likely to qualify the company as an electric aggregator. As such, the office recommended that he apply for license with Pura, according to electronic posts provided for a request to the Law on Information Freedom.
“I believe in the current CT regulations, your company is acting as an aggregate,” wrote a staff of Fonfara in an email. “I know you have a spraying page that says you are not a supplier or intermediary, but in CT intermediaries are not an entity allowed or defined, you either have to be a supplier or aggregate.”
Fonfara, who was requesting information from the consumer adviser at the time, quickly postponed that recommendation and sent a response by asking the office to show it in law or regulation that would require him to register his company with Pura.
The staff for the Consumer Council office responded by indicating some previous rules from Pura. They said those decisions determined that every company operating on behalf of clients while buying electricity was an aggregate.
About the same time when OCC was advising fonfara to apply for a license, officials in Pura also began to ask if the company was staging the law.
Theresa Govert, the Chief of Staff for Pura, confirmed on Wednesday that a branch of the agency known as the Education, Extension and Implementation Office sent questions to third -party electrical suppliers in September 2024 asking if any of the companies had done business with or received orders from my supply manager.
The office also requested information from suppliers if my supply manager was operating under a license for electrical aggregators.
Above one dozen, third -party electrical suppliers eventually answered the questions sent by Thomas Lopez, the director of the Office of Education, Education and Implementation. Everyone said they had no data on doing business with my supply manager. They also told Lopez they were unaware if the company had a license to serve as an electric aggregator.
Fonfara said on Wednesday that suppliers’ responses offered further evidence that his company was not operating in the regulated market Pura. “If anyone would say they did business with me, it would be untrue,” Fonfara said. “I am untrue.”
The Office of Education, Extension and Implementation is an independent Pura arm that is authorized to receive complaints from fee payers and conduct investigations.
The staff in that office is “ardent” by the Pura commissioners, governors said, but if they believe that a company is violating the laws and regulations of the state, they may seek service commissioners and demand that implementation actions be taken against the business.
Since this week, the office has not had any action against my supply manager, Governous said.
In addition to my supply manager, Fonfara owns or has had an interest in a number of other businesses working with electric markets and other energy projects, according to his financial interest and business registries available through the Secretary of the State Office.
At the end of 2023, he registered two more businesses under the names “Wesearch Energy” and “Supply Manager”. Both were alternative names for the operation that became my supply manager, said Fonfara, and are no longer operating entities.
Between 2018 and 2023, he was ranked as Chief Executive Officer at Wattifi, according to registrations with the Secretary of the State Office.
Wattifi was a third -party supplier licensed by Pura to operate in the regulated connecticut electrical supply market. Last week, CT Insider reported that the company was previously quoted by Pura to load variable rates and failure to keep enough renewable energy loans in its portfolio. Prior to its dissolution, the company was rated more than $ 1 million in delayed fees for failing to pay money owed to services.
Speaking to reporters, Fonfara has argued that the company was unjustly ordered to pay that money as part of an attempt to redesign invoices it did not plan to participate as the company was already in the process of closing. He also said he was unaware of the late tariffs calculated until last week.
Fonfara also owns Capitol Sign LLC, a former Billboard Company for which the Senator said has since branched out other business companies, including consulting on DBS Energy, a business involved in the solar work regulated by Pura. DBS Energy President Erik Bartone is the former Business Partner of Fonfara in Wattifi, and the company lists the same address in Cromwell as my supply manager in its registrations with the Secretary of State.
He also listed an interest in a real estate firm named LLC, which he told CT Mirror was involved in a “business interest overseas” that was not subject to Pura supervision. Numerous press reports have identified the company as developers following a proposed project of the Multibillion-Dollar Data Center in Westfield, MASS.
Itai Vardi, a researcher for the Institute of Energy and Politics, a group that trades himself as a Supervisory Group of Services, said that the network of business interests of Fonfara – as well as its conflicts with regulators – are sufficient to raise concerns about its qualifications to serve the authority.
“It is clear that he works in the space of the electrical supplier,” Vardi said. “This is a clear conflict for him.”
However, Fonfara has argued that experience in the Energy and Technology Committee and as a business owner makes it suitable for the role.
In a statement issued through a spokesman on Wednesday morning, Fonfara said if he is named in Pura, he “will work to reduce electricity costs to improve household affordability and business competition.”
“I will take this as my only professional responsibility without conflict of any kind, including any direct or indirect relationship with any organization whose business is among those who are regulated by Pura,” he added, specifying that he intended to leave my supply manager.
“I will not hold an interest in any entity engaged in Pura supervised areas, whether they are regulated by Pura or not,” he said.