Zohar obtains $1.52 Million arbitration award for advertising executive
Lisa Arie is a successful entrepreneur who left a big advertising agency to start her own advertising production company in New York. She grew the company over the years, expanded into offices nationwide, and made it into a very successful business. After experiencing severe health problems, she decided it was time to sell the business. A suitor emerged in TEAM Acquisition Corp., a large entertainment payroll concern based in Burbank, CA.
An agreement was reached to purchase the company, keep Ms. Arie on for two years as President, and to pay her a $1 million bonus if the newly-acquired company hit certain profit goals.
After two years, the company’s revenue had increased dramatically. Ms. Arie requested her bonus, but TEAM refused to pay, claiming that according to their own accounting records, the company had actually lost money during the two year span. TEAM also contended that Ms. Arie had shirked her responsibilities as President and accused her of poor performance.
Daniel Y. Zohar was hired to recover the money owed to Ms. Arie and filed claims in private arbitration, as required by the contract. After many months of resisting, TEAM eventually disclosed financial records for the company that enabled Zohar to evaluate TEAM’s claims. After reviewing the records provided, Zohar determined that TEAM had essentially “cooked the books” by adding hundreds of thousands of dollars of false expenses to the records, covering up what had been significant profits more than sufficient to trigger the profit bonus.
After a full arbitration on the merits before the Hon. Lourdes Baird (ret.), Mr. Zohar obtained for Ms. Arie an award of $1.52 million.