Carbon Diversion Inc., a company that hoped to bring an environmentally beneficial technology to the world, is facing an uncertain future with its former executives and its owner accusing each other of wrongdoing.

Shareholders recently held a special meeting in which they replaced the existing directors with their own candidates, who then dismissed Michael Lurvey, the company's president and chief executive officer. Other officers had previously resigned.

"It's unfortunate that we had to take such drastic action," said Amanda Knorr, who was appointed Carbon Diversion's new president and treasurer, in a press statement issued last week.

"Once we can understand the true extent of the company's financial situation, the new board will determine the company's future direction."

Last week Lurvey said Mantria Corp., a Pennsylvania company that bought $2.1 million of Carbon Diversion's shares, did not have the right to take over the company, and that allegations by Mantria were untrue.

"Mantria has ruined Carbon Diversion's reputation, and they're making us out to be the bad guys," Lurvey said.

"They took over everything. Then they accused me of theft."

The picture is much different than the beginning of this year when Carbon Diversion and Mantria announced they would be working together on facilities where trash and green waste would be converted using a process that reduced pollution while producing a soil enhancer for farmers and gardeners.

Carbon Diversion, based in Waipahu, was attractive to Mantria because it held a license for carbonization technology developed at the University of Hawai'i and had developed small-scale plants that could take waste materials that normally would have gone into landfills and produce carbon and charcoal products.

Mantria, in turn, had invested in Carbon Diversion and spent another $2.5 million for work on a plant in Dunlap, Tenn., and another one that was to be developed in Carlsbad, N.M.

Lurvey said UH also holds an ownership stake in Carbon Diversion. Officials at UH's Office of Technology Transfer and Economic Development did not immediately respond to messages left Friday.

The Tennessee plant opened in August with Mantria, a firm that focuses on commercialization of socially responsible products and services, proclaiming the plant could potentially sequester 96,000 tons of carbon dioxide annually while reducing disposal of 43,000 tons of waste in producing 32,000 tons of its EnternaGreen BioChar soil enhancer.

The New Mexico site has been delayed, according to a report last month in the Carlsbad Current Argus newspaper.

Hawai'i Circuit Court records show Mantria became suspicious about Carbon Diversion's finances around the start of summer after it got calls from vendors saying they hadn't been paid. Mantria alleged that some of the funds were diverted to projects in which it wasn't involved and that almost $500,000 that Mantria had provided for payments to vendors went unpaid.

Mantria, based in Bala Cynwyd, a town outside of Philadelphia, brought in a forensic accountant that issued a report saying Carbon Diversion had cash flow problems, unrecorded liabilities and severe liquidity problems, according to court records.

The owner last month sought a court order to force Carbon Diversion to hold a shareholder meeting and also got a restraining order requiring Carbon Diversion to prevent destruction of electronic records.

Lurvey, in an interview, said there was no misappropriation of money as Mantria has alleged and accused Mantria of taking technology it had developed. He said Carbon Diversion's accounting system could have been better, but that it never spent money on anything other than what was agreed on.

"I have a letter from Troy (Troy Wragg, Mantria chairman) saying that they are going to fund every project that CDI is involved in, including Hawai'i, Tennessee and New Mexico."

"They knew anything before it was done. We have a slew of e-mail."

He also disputed Mantria's ownership levels in Carbon Diversion and said the company still owed it money for equipment.

"They broke me financially," Lurvey said. "They put a financial stranglehold on me and CDI."

Mantria declined comment when contacted. Carbon Diversion's Web site has been taken down and its Waipahu office was apparently closed, with no one answering calls to its office last week.