Most allegations against current chairman of AAHOA Pratik Patel.
By Sujeet Rajan
NEW YORK: Nine members of the Asian American Hotel Owners Association (AAHOA), the Atlanta-based association that represents about 40 percent of U.S. hotels, have filed a lawsuit against the chairman, Pratik Patel and other current office-bearers of the organization, alleging “theft, embezzlement and corruption.”
The lawsuit filed in the United States District Court Atlanta Division, on August 12, alleges that AAHOA directors and officers including Patel, principal of San Antonio, Texas-based REM Hospitality, have engaged in misuses of the group’s funds, manipulated bid processes for contracts, destroyed meeting minutes and misdirected charitable donations, reported the Atlanta Business Chronicle. The members who filed the lawsuit want a judge to order an immediate halt to the violations.
“Absent intervention by this court, AAHOA will be crippled, its governance and ethics left in shambles, and its former honest and highly qualified staff forever lost to the organization,” says the lawsuit.
AAHOA Chairman Pratik Patel, in a statement to Atlanta Business Chronicle, called the lawsuit “wasteful and frivolous.”
“The current AAHOA Board of Directors has implemented a governance process that is the most transparent in the 25-year history of the association,” he said. “Such openness does not sit well with some who prefer the old style politics of the past. It is unfortunate that wild accusations, which have been adjudicated time and again through the AAHOA governance process, have now become part of a wasteful and frivolous lawsuit. We will vigorously defend our association against such reckless claims.”
AAHOA, which this year celebrates its 25th anniversary, consists of more than 12,500 members. According to the lawsuit, the group has an annual budget of roughly $10 million and assets worth $7 million.
The lawsuit, filed by Jay S. Patel, Anil Patel, Bhavesh Desai, Brijesh Patel, Chandravadan Patel, Divyesh Desai, Hiren Patel, Manish Kumar Desai, and Shailesh Patel, alleges that a group within the organization tried to manipulate elections in 2003, and deny members their voting rights. This group, they alleges, is now again disrupting operations within the organization.
Although some other office bearers are mentioned, the majority of the allegations are against Pratik Patel, and it seems to stem also from the bad blood with former chairman Alkesh Patel, with whom Pratik patel had come to blows with at the AAHOA convention in Philadelphia.
According to some of the allegations, Pratik Patel had in March, 2010 funneled $15,000 to his business partner’s company and he also misused this funds to campaign for office within the organization. Patel had also travelled to London with his wife, along with other office members using AAHOA funds. Each individual was reimbursed for around $1,200, the complaint alleges.
In 2012, Patel, it’s alleged, misdirected a substantial portion of the $50,000 charitable donation, going against the governing laws of the organization. Around October, 2013, Patel awarded a $290,000 entertainment contract to a friend, which it’s alleged was $50,000 more than the approved contract ceiling. A serious allegation is also that the annual budget allocation for last year’s convention was hiked by “several million dollars”, “grossly exceeding” the budget for conventions in the past.
Also, it’s alleged that Pratik Patel assaulted and battered Alkesh Patel, a former AAHOA chairman, in March of 2014, when he complained of Pratik’s actions within the organization. The American Bazaar had reported that incident and that story can be read here:
2 Comments
“The lawsuit, filed by Jay S. Patel, Anil Patel, Bhavesh Desai, Brijesh Patel,
Chandravadan Patel, Divyesh Desai, Hiren Patel, Manish Kumar Desai, and
Shailesh Patel – all members of AAHOA themselves – had accused the AAHOA
chairman Pratik Patel and other current office-bearers of the organization of
“theft, embezzlement and corruption.” Can you make out the real meaning of this
line ? These are the country cousins of Narandra Modi, who own >70 % of all
Motels, some them as beehives of prostitution rings on highways and some
unknown towns, amassing their moolah to help the BJP to overthrow Congress and ….what else? I shall leave that your wild imagination
If anyone has a wild imagination it is you. The second generation of Patels and other Gujaratis own first class establishments with premier brands like Hyatt, Hilton and Marriott in their portfolio. They use sophisticated investment vehicles including REITs with Hersha being the leading example.
You sound like a Congress bogeyman lamenting the decimation of a party that catered to crooks and thieves with most of it principally benefiting the Gandhi-Nehru clan