Cardinal Ethanol files lawsuit against its Indianapolis-based IT provider

Union City-based Cardinal Ethanol LLC is suing its Indianapolis-based technology service provider over what Cardinal describes as “an ongoing hostage situation” over control of the ethanol producer’s IT systems.

But the defendants, The IT Mothership LLC and its owner and president, Brian Roehm, say the complaint is without merit and they plan to file their own complaint over the hundreds of thousands of dollars Cardinal owes them for unpaid work.

Cardinal filed its complaint Tuesday in Marion County. The complaint identifies both Roehm and his company as being located in Hamilton County, while also noting that they officially have an Indianapolis address.

In its complaint, Cardinal alleges that after it told The IT Mothership that it would not be renewing its service contract with the company, the contractor submitted more than $760,000 in “fraudulent invoices” and demanded payment as a condition of relinquishing its access controls to Cardinal’s IT systems.

“In another context, what IT Mothership and Roehm are doing is no different than an employee with sole possession of the keys refusing to open the store for business unless the employer pays whatever the employee asks,” the complaint alleges.

But Roehm told IBJ that Cardinal’s complaint is unfounded.

“This is a situation that has been ongoing since early 2025 for work done in 2023 and 2024,” Roehm said. “Cardinal Ethanol owes IT Mothership hundreds of thousands of dollars for its services.”

“The claim that IT Mothership has wrongfully withheld credentials is unsupported. Cardinal has all of its user credentials, and our company has the contractual right to withhold certain credentials in the case of unpaid invoices,” Roehm said.

Roehm’s legal counsel in the case, Indianapolis attorney Robert MacGill, said he intends to file a counterclaim for the fees Cardinal owes his client.

Cardinal CEO Tom Ranallo told IBJ that the company decided to take legal action after other attempts to regain the IT credentials were unsuccessful.

“Cardinal Ethanol will never compromise its operations or the interests of its unit holders, employees, and customers,” Ranallo told IBJ via email. “When IT Mothership, a soon-to-be former IT vendor, refused to return Cardinal-owned systems while demanding payment of disputed and unsubstantiated invoices, Cardinal Ethanol attempted to resolve the matter without litigation. Those efforts were unsuccessful, leaving Cardinal Ethanol no alternative but to turn to the courts. Cardinal Ethanol is confident that facts will demonstrate that its position is correct and that its property must be returned.”

In its complaint, Cardinal says that it hired The IT Mothership in May 2016 as its third-party IT support services provider. In connection with this agreement, Cardinal gave The IT Mothership administrator-level access to its IT systems.

According to the agreement that was filed along with Cardinal’s lawsuit, Cardinal agreed to pay The IT Mothership $8,292 per month for its services beginning June 1, 2016. The one-year agreement was set to automatically renew each year unless one of the parties gave 30 days’ advance notice that they did not want to renew the contract.

Beginning in 2024, Cardinal alleges, the company’s managers received employee complaints about The IT Mothership’s services, and around the same time, Cardinal became aware of an increase in security threats within its industry.

In response, Cardinal alleges, it hired a third-party IT consultant to test its current IT systems, both at its Union City site and at the Colwich, Kansas site it had acquired in January 2024.

That third-party testing revealed “significant deficiencies and serious vulnerabilities in the current IT environment managed by IT Mothership, including severe threats to the facilities’ IT security systems,” the complaint alleges.

As a result of these findings, Cardinal alleges, it met with Roehm in March 2025 to discuss its concerns. At that meeting, Cardinal alleges, it told Roehm that it would continue to use The IT Mothership for the time being but that it should wrap up its ongoing work.

Cardinal alleges that it also retained a different IT firm to serve as its virtual chief information officer, providing guidance and recommendations about how to improve its IT systems and cybersecurity.

In the months to follow, Cardinal alleges, Roehm became “increasingly erratic and confrontational,” and ignored multiple requests to provide Cardinal with the access credentials to its IT system.

Then, in December 2025, Cardinal alleges, it informed The IT Mothership that it would not be renewing its contract after it expired in June of this year.

The complaint alleges that shortly after that, in February 2026, The IT Mothership sent 19 separate invoices for work it said it had performed between June 2023 and December 2024 related to Cardinal’s acquisition of the Colwich site in Kansas.

Cardinal describes the charges as “facially implausible” and alleges that The IT Mothership never performed the work detailed in those invoices.  As an example, Cardinal alleges, the invoices reference 130 hours of Colwich-related work before June 21, 2023. But, Cardinal alleges, before that date it had not told Roehm that it was considering acquiring that site.

Cardinal is asking the court to order that the defendants immediately turn over Cardinal’s IT access credentials.

A court hearing is scheduled for Friday.