Rift grows in the family of Dr. Kiran Patel of Tampa.
By Sujeet Rajan
NEW YORK: The ugly story of the growing rift between two of the most prominent Indian American families in Tampa, Florida, who are related to each other, serves as also a warning for wannabe Bollywood promoters and organizers in the US: it could well backfire, lead to financial ruin, loss of reputation, and legal trouble as well, apart from doing irreparable harm to personal relationships.
One of the richest Indian-origin entrepreneurs and a top philanthropist in the US, cardiologist Dr. Kiran Patel, is facing fresh allegations from his brother-in-law Chetan ‘Jason’ Shah, a local realtor and businessman who runs a motel and several dry cleaning units in the Tampa area.
Shah is the brother of Patel’s wife Dr. Pallavi Patel, who is herself respected as a generous philanthropist, and along with her husband has contributed more than $25 million dollars in the last 10 years to the University of Florida.
Kiran Patel is currently the Chairman and President of Freedom Health and Optimum Healthcare, Inc., which are award-winning health maintenance organizations providing managed care benefits to Medicare recipients, and reportedly is worth around $200 million. He was earlier the Chairman of WellCare, where he acquired struggling HMOs in New York and Connecticut and helped build the company into the largest Medicaid health insurance company in Florida and fifth largest in the U.S. When he left WellCare in 2002, it had over $1 billion in revenue, over 450,000 members and 1,200 employees. He was also a key investor in IkaSystems, Inc., a provider of cloud computing solutions to the managed care industry. Patel oversaw a 3000 per cent increase in revenue at IkaSystems before exiting the investment in 2007.
According to reports in the Tampa Bay Times, which first reported the brewing trouble in the family, Shah, 48, filed a fresh set of allegations in Hillsborough Circuit Court this month about Patel, and has demanded a jury trial in the lawsuit Patel had filed against him in May, following irreconcilable differences over the 2014 International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) awards gala in Tampa, in April. A settlement between them has also not come through.
Patel, 65, says that Shah fraudulently added his name to documents creating a host committee for the IIFA. Patel says he discovered this late last year, when event organizers complained that Shah was running out of money and they threatened to take the event elsewhere.
According to the Times, the four-day event was a major one for the region — a study later found visitors spent $19.9 million, and the economic impact reached $26.4 million as businesses stocked up and visitors’ money was re-spent.
On July 3, Shah filed another set of allegations in court, saying that it was Patel who had coerced him into signing a document as Shah was being rushed to the hospital late last year for heart surgery. The document allowed Patel to negotiate a new deal with IIFA organizers that cut Shah out of any profits, reported the Times.
Another grievance now is that Shah’s wife, who had worked for one of Patel’s companies as a pharmacy manager, was fired this month because of the ongoing feud, according to Shah.
While Shah claims to be the ‘founder’ of bringing the IIFA event to Tampa, Patel says he had wanted no part in it initially, but was drawn into it by Shah, who used his name to further his cause, and when the event got into trouble and there was no money coming in from advertisers, and a threat loomed of it being shifted away from Tampa, he decided to bail it out financially.
Patel said he didn’t find out until months later that Shah had listed him in incorporating documents for Go Bollywood Tampa Bay Florida Convention LLC, a host committee for the show, and had told people Patel was involved.
According to the Times report, local tourism officials and executives with Wizcraft, the company that puts on the show, largely support Patel’s version. Shah ran out of money to bring the event here, they said, and Patel stepped in late last year by writing a large check — an undisclosed amount, but less than the $15 million Shah had agreed to pay — to ensure IIFA came to town.
Separate lawsuits have been filed by some businesses associated with IIFA, who claim losses, and while a case in Florida has been dismissed, one filed in New York is still going on. Patel has been sued too, for his association with the IIFA.
Patel’s attorney called the ongoing suit “awful”, reported the Times.
“The doctor tried to do everything he could to avoid litigation. He was unsuccessful,” said the attorney, Lenny Englander.
“Dr. Patel does not enjoy or get any great thrill out of getting into litigation with his brother-in-law, but he has to draw the line, as any of us would have done if someone usurped our name and used it fraudulently,” he said.
1 Comment
Both are wrong if neither is right. the decider.