The 644,000 Dollar Question

[Guest guest]

Got books? Got money? Got anything?

 

After ripping off $100,000 from me personally, and sweeping away the settlement money and kicking us off the licensee board, you sneer at Hansadutta and us, calling us poor losers, "Sour Grapes Sampradaya." I suppose we should be grateful to have met you, and to have been cheated by you.

 

There are certain professional ethics governing attorney conduct, particularly in relationship to a client, and even in the case of an ex-client. It does not become an attorney to heap public scorn on a client or ex-client. But then, it also does not become an attorney to defraud his clients, as you have done. You have made a joke of your profession. Will anyone with any sense hire an attorney who has shown himself to be so unscrupulous?

 

In December, 1998, when we met in Sacramento to discuss the formation of the licensee Krishna Books, Hansadutta insisted that the directors should take up their work in the spirit of pure devotional service, without accepting salary or any other remuneration, but you protested, "We've got million-dollar investors lined up. We'll be making millions, so what is wrong if we make something?" To me you said, "If KBI makes 10 million [dollars], I don't see anything wrong with the directors making a few million. There'll be more than enough." You also said, "It's out of the question that the directors will not get salary."

 

Now you say that Hansadutta "unreasonably demanded overarching control of everything", but from the get-go, you were in high-gear takeover mode. You are the one who directed BBTI to pay the settlement money into an account offshore in the Bahamas. You are the one who went there and registered KB, Inc. and a trust. You advised us that the best arrangement was to register the licensee as a corporation registered in the Bahamas, held by a trust.

 

Then you turned around and incorporated your own Krishna Books, Inc. in California and claimed in court that it was the legal licensee, and that there was no other, that the Bahamas trust was not valid, that it could never qualify. In the meantime, you helped yourself to the settlement money in the Bahamas. You did so without our knowledge, not even a week after the first board meeting in Sacramento, where it was agreed that the settlement money would be used as start-up funds for Krishna Books. You failed in your first application to the court to ratify that the settlement money was for your fees. Judge Shook ruled that there was nothing in the settlement agreement that specifically indicated that the settlement money was for your fees.

 

Then you went and got an affidavit from ISKCON and BBTI (something funny going on there?) to say that the settlement money was to pay your fees. Even then, the court DID NOT allow that you were entitled to the settlement money for your fees; the court directed that it should be left to arbitration to decide that matter. And what did the arbitration panel determine? The Findings and Reward found that you were NOT ENTITLED to the $644,000 you claimed in legal fees from me, and further directed you to pay me personally $100,000 from the settlement money you told them was held in a regular corporate account in the Bahamas. They decided that you could pay yourself $92,000 from the settlement money also, and the balance settlement money in that account was to be paid out to your clients who had signed the Settlement Agreement--NOT YOU. The Arbitration Panel's Decision and Award is legally binding. I understand there is a court order to that effect. (Public record, not under seal.)

 

You have not paid me back my $100,000, nor have you paid out any of the settlement money as directed, nor have you co-operated to direct BBTI-ISKCON to pay out the balance $50,000 they withheld from the settlement money (which was to pay PYMC's legal fees for the Singapore court case), nor have you paid your share of the arbitration fees ($2,500.00), which you owe me personally, in spite of repeated requests. But I digress.

 

If Hansadutta was so ambitious to take full control of the license, how did you come onboard as a director of the licensee? You insisted to be brought onboard, and he reluctantly agreed. When you returned from the Bahamas, we saw you had put yourself as sole bank signator, director of KB Inc, and as a trustee of the Publishing trust. When we became suspicious and asked you to remove yourself, you refused. You even tried to keep from handing over a copy of the trust document. The BBT court case was settled in November, 1998, you grabbed all the money, grabbed complete control of the license, calling yourself "guardian of the license" and took deliberate steps to block Hansadutta's and our participation by "stacking the board" (your own words), and ultimately kicked us out.

 

Hansadutta was your primary client, and having entered into a legally binding agreement to act in your professional capacity for Hansadutta as his lawyer, you should have advocated and safeguarded his interests, but you positioned yourself in direct conflict of interest with your client, first of all keeping from him and us the fact that you had eaten up the $125,000 investment principle, secondly leading him unawares to accept a monetary settlement from which you stood to gain at our expense, and finally, you took deliberate steps to ensure that he did not derive any benefit at all from the settlement agreement. Piggy-backing your way into position on the merits of his case, you took everything away from him. Now, in one breath you twist around and call him "covetous" and "in rage over lost control and stature". In the next, you try to assume the posture of a devotee, and call for co-operation. But on the pretext of championing a spiritual cause you have broken all agreements and violated our legal rights. If anything is "at odds with right and reason", this certainly is. Your actions are totally incongruous with the ethics of your profession which define the attorney-client relationship.

 

You allege that Hansadutta had to be prevented from having sole control, but in fact it was you who repeatedly took unilateral actions in defiance of board resolutions, not to mention your conflict of interest, breach of agreements, bad legal advice, embezzlement of funds, refusal to give accounting and lies. It was as a lawyer that you were engaged to act for Hansadutta, and by misuse of legal process, you have deprived him and ourselves of any benefit from the settlement, and then tried to stick me with a demand for $644,000. What kind of lawyering is that? And who is the control freak?

 

You boasted repeatedly of "million-dollar investors" waiting in the wings.

 

It has been nearly five years. Where are the books? What happened to the money? Where are the million-dollar investors? Got books? Got money? Got million-dollar investors? Got Krishna? Got Prabhupada? Got anything-- besides hot air? What do you have? A bad reputation, and maybe less than that after everything will be said said and done.

 

The conclusion is that you never did anything as a service for Srila Prabhupada in this matter, and what you did in the capacity of an attorney was self serving from beginning to end. The facts have been presented to the State Bar in our complaint. They obviously have taken the matter very seriously. Trial date has been set for September 2nd, 3rd and 4th, 2003.

 

The 3rd of September is the appearance day of Radharani. It's going to be an auspicious day for someone.

 

[Guest guest]

HK AGTOP PAMHO I think it is totally ironic that Gupta Das is the lawyer for the very sensitive sexual abuse case that ISKCON is going through. How could ISKCON hire such an uncallous individual to represent Srila Prabhupada's ISKCON? I think the GBC should seriously rethink their options and hire another lawyer.

My question is what did Gupta das promise for coming onboard for this case? Or, what did the GBC promise. In his handleing of Swami Hansadutta's case, every ethical mandate was broken between him and his clients. Do you suppose that ISKCON will fair any better. There is a very strict trust between lawyer and client, yet Gupta Das has proven that he has no ethics.

One item that needs to be seriously looked into. Gupta prabhu is representing those that have been seriously physically, emotionally, and mentally abused by ISKCON devotees that had authority over them. Now they stand the chance of being harmed again by another representing ISKCON. This should not be allowed to happen.

I think that a pure soul from the GBC should explain in vast detail to Gupta Das the dangers of laying offense at the feet of a Vaisnava. He may get away with what he has done to Hansadutta, but one day he will stand in Krsna's court where there will be no appeal.

 

[Guest guest]

Those that wish to be cheated, will be cheated.

[Guest guest]

WOW! Thats hard core. Not good news to say the least.

[Guest guest]

June 27, 2003 VNN8172 Related VNN Stories

 

Distribute Books, Not Fiction

 

BY BHAGAVANDAS, NISCHINTYA DAS, VEDA GUHYA DAS AND YASODA NANDAN DAS

 

EDITORIAL, Jun 27 (VNN) — Four Responses To "The 644,000 Dollar Question."

 

1. From Bhagavandas

 

Hansadutta, we have not openly communicated for four years, save the moment you walked into Govinda's Restaurant, vented your diatribe and walked out.

 

I am not attempting here to fuel the fire any further, although I have my doubts how you will interpret this. It is always good in understanding the present to revisit the past. As we were taught, our life is like a frame in a long movie and to understand the present scene we have to study what came before.

 

For a long time as you know, I did not want to enter the BBT case. I had not involved myself in ISKCON matters for nearly 12 years. Gupta had approached me several times, but to enter the fray and stand by you when both of us already had so much judgment around us was not very appealing.

 

Then one day when I was at the LA temple I saw Svavasa looking gray and pale. He told me he had just finished attending your deposition. At that moment I felt a strong presence from Prabhupada and an internal message to please help him end this destructive conflagration. In my discussion with both sides I could understand, especially from talking with Jayadvaita, that this would be a fight to the end. They viewed you as a macabre spirit out to destroy the BBT, usurp money and copyrights and reestablish yourself as a spokesman, guru, whatever, to try and topple their status quo.

 

What made me finally enter on your side, was first the preposterous amount of money that had already been spent by the BBT via Akruranatha (Adam Burnstein) the lawyer, and the amount which was still planned to be spent. Also, the fact that your temple in Singapore had been set fire to and the Gitas were burned, and the fact that there were definite weaknesses in the BBT International Inc claim to copyright ownership and the possibility that the original BBT could be revalidated. So I moved from the position of attempting mediation to outwardly taking sides because of my previous responsibilities as an original BBT Trustee.

 

I wanted to begin anew with you, let our past ego clashes dissolve and show how co-operating is more powerful and satisfying than fighting. At this point let me say that no one other than Gupta could have represented you. He understood the case from the most minute details, housed and fed you in his own home and got you out of other legal difficulties during the case. He had gone to law school specifically to help sort out legal issues in the Movement. Indeed he gave up everything, including his regular law practice, to take on this case. Had you and Bhima had to pay any other lawyer you would never have succeeded.

 

Instead of being a simple case it ballooned (via Akruranatha leading five other lawyers from two different law firms) into a massive legal battle. It took Gupta and his paralegal assistant, Jeff Wynton, over 4,000 legal hours to defend the case, and that does not include all the personal hours you spent with Gupta. We learned at the arbitration that the case generated over 150,000 pages of paper between all parties over the course of the complex 18 month litigation.

 

Besides Bhima's initial $100,000, he willingly offered to put up an additional $100,000 if the case had to go to a full trial. You all knew that the initial monies became insignificant compared to the rising slope the case had turned into, and your mantra was "do whatever it takes to win."

 

Win Gupta did. All of us working together ended the deep knife cut of hate to Prabhupada's heart from which hard earned money was being transfused into the heart of a mundane law firm which argued that Prabhupada's BBT did not exist. Money I might add that could have been used to print thousands upon thousands of books, or used to avert the present child abuse case.

 

After the settlement I personally tried to arrange for Bhima to get the money he now demands from Gupta (which was properly credited to attorney's fees according to the court), but Bhima refused saying it was not "in cash." If there was good faith on your part then why did you and Bhima refuse to settle up with us? You told me at my home that we were all together having the opportunity to serve because of you. We were ready to heal the wound and begin to print. But here a new war was begun. Maybe war is your food. Perhaps having an enemy is what gets you off. But this is an old way. What is the point of printing books of eternal peace when small-minded hatred, disdain, aggression and ingratitude runs the printing press? You told us at my house that you couldn't work with anyone. In fact you openly said to all of us that if you didn't have control you would "destroy everything." How could those words come out of your mouth? How did you forget who your real friends were?

 

Printing of these unedited books is straightforward. It does not require any one person to be the chairman, king or guru in charge. Why is it still so important for you to have a controlling position, so much so that the settlement monies you kept and diverted (as Protector of a Bahamian trust) in violation of U.S. arbitration orders and a U.S. judgment have been wasted again in lawyers fees to fight the very person who won the case for you?

 

It is time to stop further polluting the atmosphere with negative, hateful energy. Whether it is with printing books, child abuse issues or guru issues the devotees have a responsibility to set an example and heal themselves because, after all, they have taken real shelter of the greatest of all healers.

 

The question is, what will you do now to show us healing? We already have plenty examples of hate. Can you meet this spiritual challenge by leading us to a real healing -- or will you just talk and act out the language of hate?

 

-- Bhagavandas

 

2. From Nischintya das

 

Dear Prabhus --

 

As I remember it, you (Hansadutta, Bhima and Dasanudas dasi) had access to the money when you were on the Board of KBI (the licensee) but instead of figuring out how to print books, you and your crafty lawyer, Larry Ornell, spent your time trying to talk me into voting Gupta off the Board. When I said I would vote to print books but not for your politics, Hansadutta never called me again.

 

You three were on the Board for over three years, but you never cooperated to get even one book printed. By the way, the real facts are that in cooperation with the licensor, KBI has already printed 10,000 Bhagavad-Gitas As It Is, 10,000 Krsna Books, 5,000 Easy Journey's, 20,000 Krishna Reservoir or Pleasure (60's edition), 250,000 Krishna Reservoir or Pleasure (70's edition) and 100,000 Perfection of Yoga's, and more are on the way! None of you lifted even one finger to help print even one of these books. None of you put up even one dollar to print even one of these books. All you've done for four years now is to whine about Hansadutta not being in control. I wonder if you'll buy even one case of any one of these titles.

 

Attacking Gupta on flimsy technical grounds is nasty business, not devotee business. You have zero appreciation for the fact that Gupta personally went in the hole hundreds of thousands of dollars to finance the litigation to get Srila Prabhupada's authorized and approved books available on the planet again. Gupta also helped you, Hansadutta, get a reduced jail sentence in 1998 on your criminal cases, during the time you were saying you had the 'good moral character' to be a BBT trustee again!

 

Due to printing and distributing all these books by KBI and devotees all over the world, the whole movement is up in arms and pressure is on the BBT to only print Srila Prabhupada's authorized and approved books -- NO CHANGES! Instead of cooperating with that, you are busy trying to make yourselves right. It's time to move on and help with printing books already!

 

By the way, Srimati Radharani's transcendental appearance has nothing to do with your plan for a pound of flesh. If you want to do some devotional service prabhus, you can start by stopping all the whining and your personal vendetta, and humbly help us distribute our Spiritual Master's books!

 

Haribol! Nischintya das

 

3. From Veda Guhya Das

 

Bhima, Dasanudas dasi and Hansadutta --

 

"The 644,000 Dollar Question" is 110% vendetta politics. I was there for those Sacramento meetings, and your report of what happened at my home is nonsense fiction.

 

The fact is that you've twisted things from the beginning because the rest of us would not bow down to Hansadutta and recognize him as some kind of acarya. When Hansadutta met at Bhagavan's house after the settlement in January 1999, he had the audacity to tell Bhagavan, Gupta and me that if we wanted a relationship with Srila Prabhupada within the "spiritual hierarchy" (as he called it), we had to approach Srila Prabhupada through Hansadutta because he was the only go-between.

 

Hansadutta came out of the closet at that time because he mistakenly believed he had sole legal control over the license and could unilaterally do what he wanted. It was only later when Hansadutta found out that he didn't control the situation, that the three of you manufactured a complaint about Gupta out of spite. I sure didn't hear anyone of you complaining about Gupta's legal work during the case, or in your public letters after the case when the BBT was revalidated and a license to print Srila Prabhupada's authorized and approved books was legally secured! All this twisted stuff you now spout about Gupta is a pathetic attempt to get leverage and control over the license so that Hansadutta can prove to the world that he is back on top.

 

I also invested money in the lawsuit to free up Srila Prabhupada's authorized and approved books, but I didn't file any State Bar complaint against Gupta. Why? Because we all knew before trial that the case was costing over three times as much as we put up, and that Gupta was personally carrying the litigation costs and expenses. Gupta even paid for new teeth for you, Hansadutta, so you wouldn't look like a homeless derelict for your deposition! And did you also forget that during the case when you were busted at the Mexican border, on a warrant for driving under the influence and illegally having a loaded or unregistered firearms, that Gupta helped you through those criminal problems so that you, Hansadutta, only had to spend a month or so in county jail (during the BBTI case) instead of going to prison for a couple of years? Your convenient memory loss and ingratitude astounds me!

 

Bhima and Hansadutta, you didn't get ripped off one penny. To say otherwise is pure rubbish. Monies that Bhima put up were properly credited for attorney's fees, as the court ruled. But you refused to account for the money in your control, you refused to transfer the money back to the court, you knew the actual cost of litigating that case was many times what you put up, you refused to reasonably settle up accounts and you refused to cooperate with your Godbrothers to print one book. So don't think that we're going to sit back and just let you witness all of your lies against Gupta at the State Bar without being checked. We will also be there, and we'll be calling it As It Is.

 

Veda Guhya Das

 

4. From Yasoda Nandan das

 

Pranams. All glories to Srila Prabhupada. Hamsaduta Prabhu,

 

You may remember that it was only a couple of years ago that you came to me and asked what you should do about your State Bar case against Gupta and about not being in sole control of KBI. I told you then that you should be reasonable and settle it up in a Vaishnava way, and that you should work with your Godbrothers and not try to dominate. Do you remember what you then said? "I can not work with these people . . . I cannot work with Bhagavan and Gupta." But Srila Prabhupada said that our love for him would be shown in our cooperation with our Godbrothers and Godsisters.

 

Your unholy complaint against Gupta and your on-going public smear campaign project (after the incredible legal effort that was made to secure Srila Prabhupada's authorized and approved books), is utter nonsense, and it will only bring you more misfortune and negative reactions. Without showing some gratitude or mercy to others how can there be any spiritual advancement?

 

As a point of information, and as you obviously must know, since the issuance of the publishing license, KBI has reprinted EASY JOURNEY TO OTHER PLANETS, KRSNA THE RESERVOIR OF PLEASURE, THE PERFECTION OF YOGA, LA PERFECTION DU YOGA (French Edition), and joint printing with the BBT: BHAGAVAD-GITA AS IT IS, and recently, the two volume KRSNA BOOK. As such your preposterous claim that no books have been reprinted ("Got books?") is simply a prevarication.

 

Sincerely yours in the publication and distribution of Srila Prabhupada's authorized and approved pre-1978 books.

 

Your servant,

 

Yasoda Nandan dasa