ATLANTA—A federal court judge has ruled against individuals seeking to remove the entire Asian American Hotel Owners Association (AAHOA) Board of Directors. In a ruling issued Wednesday, Judge Harold Murphy rejected the plaintiff’s motions citing long-standing law which showed the plaintiffs had not met the legal requirements of the actions they were requesting.
On Aug. 12, nine members of AAHOA filed a lawsuit that accused the current leaders of “theft, embezzlement and corruption.” The lawsuit alleged that AAHOA directors and officers have engaged in misuses of the group’s funds, manipulated bid processes for contracts, destroyed meeting minutes, and misdirected charitable donations.
Murphy considered testimony by all witnesses accusing management of wrongdoing and stated that the case brought against AAHOA stood little chance of success at trial.
“The decision confirms what we have stated all along, the claims made by these individuals against AAHOA are frivolous and have no basis in fact,” said AAHOA Chairman Pratik Patel. “Hopefully this will put an end to this action and we can get on with our mission of representing the 12,500 men and women who make up AAHOA.”
Following the decision to dismiss the motions, Patel announced he will take additional steps to ensure that every complaint from an AAHOA member is properly adjudicated through the AAHOA governance process. He went on to state that while most of the allegations contained in the complaint had already been considered by various levels of the AAHOA governance process, he will ask the Board of Directors to reconsider every allegation in the lawsuit at the next Board of Directors meeting on Sept. 2-3.
