Racial discrimination? Court thinks so.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: A Michigan court has ruled in favor of allowing a lawsuit, in which Indian-Americans have accused Lotus Bank of racial discrimination, to proceed to trial. Judge Denise Morris, of Oakland County Circuit Court in Michigan, made the ruling on Wednesday, nearly five months after The Oakland Press originally broke the story.
The lawsuit has been filed by Jasit Takhar and Anil Gupta, who allege that the Novi branch of Lotus Bank, which opened in 2007, treated them unfairly because of their ethnicity. Despite opening the branch with the supposed intention of catering to “the Indian and Asian communities [of] southeast Michigan,” and despite having 14 of the 17 board members of the bank of Indian ancestry, Takhar and Gupta say their attempts to renegotiate the $1.4 million mortgage on their hotel in 2010-2011 was sabotaged by Neal Searle, the President and CEO of the bank.
According to the lawsuit, Searle allegedly refused to hear Takhar and Gupta’s case for refinancing because of their Indian heritage, saying things like “I don’t care what your Indian buddies told you, I make the decision” and “I know how you Indians operate, you like to deal with someone you know in upper management, but this does not work like that, do you understand English?” Bank CFO Richard Bauer allegedly made the comment that “the only good Indian is a dead Indian.”
Searle also allegedly undervalued their hotel property during a $3,600 bank appraisal, and finally – along with fellow executive John Westerheide – demanded that Takhar and Gupta’s outstanding payment be made almost immediately along with $300,000 of security, or the bank would foreclose. The plaintiffs were able to make the payments, but as a result were forced to suffer financial difficulties for a long period afterward.
The supposed evidence of Lotus Bank’s racism against Takhar and Gupta comes from email exchanges that the two managed to save and show to attorney Hertz Schram, whose firm now represents the plaintiffs. Patrick McCarthy, attorney for Lotus Bank, has admitted that the emails were wrong but that the alleged racism had nothing to do with the Bank’s hesitance to finance the plaintiff’s hotel, and that it was a strictly financial decision that has now been blown out of proportion.
Oakland County is a suburb of Detroit, and is one of the ten highest income counties in the country (for counties of over a million people). According to the 2010 census, the county has a population of over 1.2 million, with 6.1% being Asian-American of some kind. The plaintiffs originally attempted to file the case as a class-action lawsuit, but Judge Langford has denied that motion. A trial date has yet to be determined.