Nasal-spray company stands divided against itself.(A SECTION)
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ENGLEWOOD — When Charles Fust and Stacey Maloney took a tour on the “True Player” in the spring of 2003, Andrew Badolato was a close business associate, if not friend. As he did several times, Badolato had lent Fust his boat. But this trip was particularly special: Fust planned to pop the question. Everett Setser was the couple’s captain as they sailed from Marathon to become engaged with a ring that has since rubbed salt into an already sore relationship between the boat’s owner and his guest. The picture Setser snapped of the happy couple with a wahoo dangling between them still has a place in Badolato’s photo albums, evidence of happier times. A year later, Fust and his wife, Badolato and Setser — plus the ring — are all part of a fight over management of the small nasal spray company that Fust and Badolato helped create. Badolato, the 39-year-old chief executive of Sargon Capital, is leading the charge against Fust, now chairman and chief executive of SinoFresh Healthcare. With the help of Miami attorney David Haber, he has gathered investors for a lawsuit, filed in February. Setser, a DeLand resident and SinoFresh shareholder, is a plaintiff, along with Badolato’s brother and father and some business associates. And Fust, the 59-year-old chemist who invented the signature spray, is trying to fend off allegations that he used corporate money to buy the ring and that he wasn’t straight with SinoFresh’s board about the lease of a building he and another board member own, among other “self-dealings.” Among the other plaintiffs are Seattle attorney David Otto and film and television financier Stephen Bannon, both board directors and a duo who were introduced to SinoFresh by Badolato. In the days before the suit, they were removed from the board in a controversial ploy that was later declared null. The company has since admitted the removal was short sufficient votes and that it hadn’t properly served notice to shareholders. Otto and Bannon, who have taken their beefs to the Securities and Exchange Commission, are back on the board, but with their seats in jeopardy. The suit, alleging securities violations, is pending in Tampa’s federal district court, aimed at Fust; Maloney-Fust, a SinoFresh director; another director, Robert DuPont; and Chief Financial Officer Russell Lee. The shareholders, who are seeking class-action status in the lawsuit, are asking for monetary damages, declarations of wrongdoing by the defendants and repayment of some money, among other things. But the real fight may not ultimately be about the ring, the condo the company rents from Fust’s wife, or the multiple securities violations shareholders are alleging Fust and other top executives perpetrated. More : accessmylibrary.com |