Shareholder and Stakeholder Disputes

Representative Cases:

SHAREHOLDER DISPUTE - Court appointment to investigate the co-owner manager "lock-out" of a retail business.  Manager sued to recover damages.  Defendant co-owner investor claimed embezzlement.  Investigated reports of disputed expenditures and draws, use of resources for unrelated businesses, diversion of assets to personal use, fictitious and double expense reimbursements,  personal use of company credit cards, and misapplication of customer payments to benefit personal friends and relatives.  Final report submitted for judge's ruling.

INTERCOMPANY ACCOUNTS - Plaintiff expert for family owned agricultural operation.  Sued by General Manager who owned a percentage of a new entity created to provide refrigeration services to 3rd party produce growers. A profitable produce division was transferred into the new entity to support its financing. Later, the transaction was reversed, creating the dispute which was further complicated by the use of intercompany accounts to allocate indirect overhead costs for the produce division while housed in the new entity.  Case settled.

OWNERSHIP AND CONTROL - Consulting expert for dispute over the ownership, control, financing, and development of multiple real estate parcels and development projects held in limited liability companies.  Required significant public records research.  Issues included the denial of rights to LLC members, the creation of alter egos to conceal ownership and control,  the reporting of cash distributions on partnership tax returns without distributing cash to pay the taxes, and using joint assets as separate collateral.  Case settled.   

MULTI-ENTITY HOSPITALITY COMPANY - Forensic accounting investigation related to disputed shareholder distributions for Custodian appointed by Arizona Superior Court.  Reconstructed fifteen years of accounting records and calculated the adjustments required to equalize the distributions between two shareholders for a large multi-entity hospitality company.  Prepared lengthy report used as the basis for a final settlement.  

FURNITURE MANUFACTURING - Judge required parties to hire forensic accountant to calculate Plaintiff damages.  Dispute related to two division furniture business (i.e. manufacturing and wholesale).  The Plaintiff was included as partner in the manufacturing division and was later excluded when the partnership entity changed to a limited liability company.  Plaintiff asked to be bought out of the LLC.  Defendants claimed he held no ownership and, when the dispute began in earnest, formed a 2nd LLC to house both divisions of the business.