Ed Kramer, the founder of Atlanta’s DragonCon science-fiction convention, has filed a lawsuit against Robert Patrick Henry, the current director of the popular convention, claiming that Henry has shortchanged Kramer on stock proceeds and accusing Henry of misspending company funds on Las Vegas boondoggles and hiring unqualified relatives. The lawsuit was filed last week in Fulton Superior Court according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The suit also accuses Henry of hiding company financial records that lead to Kramer selling 2,050 of stock in the convention for a lower value. “Pat Henry initiated an aggressive, coercive, and nepotistic campaign,” the suit states, “to wrest control of the company away from its shareholders.”
Kramer’s attorney, McNeill Stokes, refused to comment. Henry responded only by e-mail.
“Although he [Kramer] is a minority shareholder,” wrote Henry, “he no longer has control over management decisions. That loss of control may be what motivated him to bring these baseless allegations.
“DragonCon has enjoyed great success since Mr. Kramer left, and we do not think a court will second guess the way that current management has run it.”
The suit also alledges that Henry is misrepresenting attendance figures of the popular convention. Kramer claims this is being done to keep the Atlanta fire marshall away from the convention and possibly shutting it down due to overcrowding. DragonCon reports having 30,000 attendees last year while Kramer says that private investigators he hired to stake out the convention report the crowd at 41,000.
As a regular attendee, I can certainly believe that the crowd is over 40,000. Still, unless Kramer can prove fraud that injured him, I think the suit is pretty frivolous.
Ya kinda left out the parts about how Kramer’s been charged with multiple counts of child moelstation and coming up to trial soon, and is 1) desperate to postpone going to court, and 2) out of money.
Yes this is a bad guy. Kramer also been involved with Actor Richard Hatch on business deal and yet they still allow Richard at dragon con collecting information against them. Not sure if thats smart.
Richard Hatch is part of the lawsuit? wow. Why is he still listed as a guest? It says hs coming to dragon con for 2010? After reading the Kramer Hatch petition on Facebook that seems their is going to be a war between these parties. I vote for DragonCon.