BY DAN HILDEBRAN
The shareholders of the corporation that owns Starke’s Best Western have settled a 2019 lawsuit.
Pushpa Patel said in a complaint that although she has been a 25% shareholder in Shiv Crupa Inc., and the company issued tax documents indicating her share in the company’s profits, she was not paid accordingly.
The minority shareholder said that one other entity owns 25% of the company, with the remaining 50% controlled by Shuresh Patel.
The plaintiff further claimed that from 2010 through 2018, she received no distributions from the corporation, even though the company sent her tax documents indicating available profits for distribution.
“For instance,” wrote her attorneys in the complaint, “for the tax year 2016, the corresponding K-1 issued to Pushpa showed ordinary business income attributable to her in the amount of $169,109. Despite receipt of the yearly K-1 forms, Pushpa has not received corresponding distributions from Shiv Crupa since 2010.
The plaintiff added that in 2019, the company sent her $200,000, which corresponded to Shiv Crupa’s 2018 profits attributable to her.
Pushpa also asserted that the corporation’s officers denied her access to corporate records as required by Florida law and further claimed that Shuresh failed in his fiduciary duties to shareholders.
In answering Pushpa’s claims, the corporation and Shuresh said that the plaintiff induced Shiv Crupa to loan nearly $472,000 to a company controlled by Pushpa and her husband and that the company was mismanaged, resulting in a default of the loan.
The defendants added that Shiv Crupa was under no legal obligation to distribute the plaintiff’s share of profits to her and that Shiv Crupa provided all the information about the company to which she was legally entitled.
The terms of the May 28 settlement were not disclosed in court documents.
