CASPER, Wyo. — The Town of Glenrock; its mayor, Bruce Roumell; and its Casper-based attorney, Amy Iberlin, say they are standing firm against what they called “a campaign of corporate bullying and intimidation” waged by Eastern Point Trust Company, a Virginia company incorporated in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
They are among 15 defendants — a mix of companies and individuals — that Eastern Point has named in its suit filed in the District of Virginia. It claims that a handful of Eastern Point’s old business partners conspired with Colorado-based Flatirons Bank to build a “knockoff” platform for managing qualified settlement funds, reaping the commissions and stealing its market share.
Like the Town of Lovell before it, Glenrock is accused of acting in furtherance of “industrial espionage” for its ministerial role in establishing the funds. In 2023, the Town of Lovell entered into a contract with Flatirons to do QSFs and got a cease and desist letter from Eastern Point — similar to the one sent to Glenrock last summer — threatening them with similar litigation and liability exposure in excess of $100,000,000.
The Town of Lovell decided to enter into a settlement agreement with Eastern Point on Feb. 25, 2025. As part of the agreement, the town was required to exchange admissions in relation to its apparent misappropriation of Eastern Point’s intellectual property claims, namely by working with Flatirons and its “Justice Escrow” enterprise, which Eastern Point says is a knockoff of its proprietary QSF 360 Platform.
Flatiron and the software developer were sued under nearly identical allegations earlier this year, but the suit was dismissed. It resurfaced again this month with more defendants, including Glenrock and some of Eastern Point’s former business partners. That includes Wyoming resident Nicholas Coccimiglio and his company, Justice for Life.
Earlier this year, Flatirons Bank filed suit against Eastern Point in Wyoming District Court, saying the trust company was engaged in an unscrupulous campaign to smear its competition and maintain its monopoly in the QSF market.
“This is just a bully who threatened us with a frivolous lawsuit if we didn’t acquiesce to their settlement demands — and because we didn’t fold, we are being sued,” Iberlin said in a statement to Oil City News. “We intend to fight these allegations vigorously and expose this lawsuit for what it is: a desperate attempt by a market incumbent to crush a competitor who dared to create a new product.”
Eastern Point’s Virginia federal complaint begins with a lengthy recitation of its rise to international dominance in the industry. It said it spent years developing a platform that could create a QSF in a day and manage the complex logistics over the years-long life of the funds.
QSFs contain the funds awarded in various types of litigation. They allow defendants to immediately mark down their liability while shielding the plaintiffs from the tax burden of the full awards, which are often paid out over time. The firms that set them up and administer the often complex payouts over time get a commission. Eastern Point says the defendants are enjoying commission rates up to 33% over the national average.
QSFs can be established through the courts, but a municipality, acting as a government agency of record, can do them much faster, case records show.
Iberlin said that towns get a nominal fee — $100 per QSF, in Glenrock’s case — for setting them up.
Iberlin said she merely arranged a meeting between the town and Flatirons – but she did not attend.
“My role was simple: I connected a forward-thinking Wyoming town with an innovative business. I personally haven’t made a single dollar from this,” her statement said. Iberlin’s statement also characterizes Justice Escrow as the superior product to Eastern Point’s QSF 360 Platform.
Iberlin said she hadn’t even heard of a QSF before March, when Jakob Norman, a colleague and another named defendant in the Virginia lawsuit, reached out to her about Flatirons and Justice Escrow and presented the potential business opportunity to Glenrock.
The real work and commission money in the QSF industry is in the firms that administer them, case evidence shows. Eastern Point said in the complaint that it invested years developing its QSF management product.
“Never one to rest on its laurels, Eastern Point again revolutionized the industry with its groundbreaking QSF 360™ Platform,” the complaint states.
Along with Coccimiglio, East Point names Florida resident Will Bunnell and Montana-based personal injury attorney Jakob Norman as defendants, calling them “Settlement Conspirators.”
“For years, the Settlement Conspirators and Eastern Point enjoyed a mutually beneficial business relationship,” East Point alleges. Eastern Point went on to contend that the conspirators regularly accessed the QSF 360 Platform and eventually pitched an alternative to Flatirons Bank. The complaint says the conspirators and Flatirons worked with Florida programmer Timothy Krochuk and Trellis Software to develop a knockoff called “Justice Escrow.”
Eastern Point is claiming $3.5 million in losses and says it is losing a half-million dollars every month due to the “breaches, statutory violations, and tortious conduct” from its competition.
Iberlin said she still hasn’t been formally served in the Eastern Point Virginia suit, which was filed Oct. 16.
Eastern Point was granted an extension of time to answer the case against it brought by Flatirons, according to court records.
Previously, Eastern Point was sued by a Michigan firm in 2023 for allegedly allowing fraudulent access to a QSF fund where the fraud resulted in a loss of over $1,600,000. Eastern Point claimed the plaintiffs lacked standing and jurisdiction and had agreed to such liability in its terms of service. The case was dismissed.
