PROVIDENCE — Republican candidate for governor Ashley Kalus faces allegations she bounced a paycheck and cheated the chief working officer of Adhereon, an Illinois-based firm that sought to market breast-implant gadgets, out of a $125,000 wage and much more in inventory.
A lawsuit filed in Chicago pits Kalus and her husband, plastic surgeon Dr. Jeffrey Weinzweig, towards Adhereon’s former COO, Kelley Folino, who was Kalus’ boss after they each labored for Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner.
It accuses the Weinzweigs of “widespread regulation fraud” and basically torpedoing Adhereon as a part of a “squeeze-out plan” to keep away from chopping Folino in on the property she helped market.
“Company is broke. End of story. End of firm. End of friendship,” Kalus allegedly wrote Folino on March 14, 2018, earlier than the dispute escalated into the breach-of-contract lawsuit.
As just lately as March 31, 2022, Kalus recognized herself because the CEO of Adhereon and her husband because the CEO of the associated Novaplast in a submitting with the Rhode Island Ethics Commission.
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“The go well with is meritless,” Kalus marketing campaign spokesman Matt Hanrahan wrote in response to a Journal request for remark. “This case has been dismissed twice beforehand, and a movement to dismiss will probably be filed shortly to once more knock out the plaintiff’s just lately filed amended grievance.”
Scott Lucas, legal professional for Folino, notes that the primary time the case was dismissed it was at Folino’s request, to vary venue.
In an Aug. 1 submitting whereas Kalus was campaigning for governor of Rhode Island, her attorneys in Chicago wrote that Folino’s lawsuit is “affected by generic, obscure, and conclusory allegations” towards “Ashley, Jeffrey, Novaplast and. … [Weinzweig’s] JW Plastic Surgery.”
They additionally argued that the Weinzweigs – Ashley and Jeffrey – can’t be held personally accountable for the alleged breach of a “supposed oral contract for fairness” as a result of “Adhereon was by no means correctly organized and thus didn’t exist.”
A choose no less than partially agreed, dismissing the lawsuit, however Folino has filed an amended grievance.
On Monday, Kalus’ lawyer filed this response to Folino’s newest bid for a listening to on a listening to on why Kalus shouldn’t be held in contempt.
“Thus, Folino has made clear her intent to influence the governor’s race in Rhode Island with the July 21 order, which Folino now thinks can be utilized towards the treasurer of Ashley’s marketing campaign to “freeze any property,” Kalus’ response stated.
“Folino is totally uncontrolled, and this Court ought to take steps to make sure that she isn’t in a position to do any everlasting injury to this Court, Ashley’s marketing campaign, or the voters of Rhode Island.”
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What occurred to Kalus’ firm?
The authorized dispute revolves round cosmetic surgery and bone reconstruction expertise Weinzweig developed years earlier whereas working on the University of Massachusetts at Lowell.
After getting a grasp’s diploma, Kalus joined her husband in Illinois, the place he was launching a brand new plastic-surgery follow.
She additionally bought concerned in politics and labored on Republican Rauner’s marketing campaign, as did Folino.
When Rauner took workplace in 2015, he employed Folino as deputy chief of employees and Kalus as director of public engagement. The two ladies turned mates.
In 2016, Kalus left state authorities and, in line with the lawsuit, “aggressively recruited” Folino to enter enterprise collectively serving to commercialize breast-implant gadgets developed by Weinzweig and promoting “branded silicone-based merchandise and supplies used for therapy of scars.”
The startup firm shaped to do the work was Adhereon, and on Aug. 1, 2017, after Folino’s employment with the Illinois Department of Commerce ended, “and in reliance on guarantees and inducements Ashley made on Adhereon’s behalf,” the lawsuit says, “Kelley determined to not pursue different employment alternatives and started working full-time on Adhereon’s growth.”
The enterprise settlement between Folino and the Weinzweigs was verbal and by no means codified in a written contract.
Folino was initially going to have the function of CEO, however that was modified to COO and co-founder, in line with the grievance, which stated she was to be paid 26.6% of Adhereon’s widespread inventory and, as soon as a sure variety of scar therapies have been offered, a $125,000-per yr wage.
But after Kalus and Folino labored collectively by 2017 to get Adhereon off the bottom, by early 2018 issues had begun to unravel.
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‘… actuality is we won’t pay salaries …’
As Folino was attempting to schedule conferences to have inventory issued in February 2018, a $7,000 paycheck to Folino, simply the second she had acquired from Adhereon, bounced, in line with the lawsuit.
Then on March 13, Kalus wrote “the corporate is in worse form than anticipated … actuality is we won’t pay salaries nor are we in a place to personally mortgage the corporate any extra money,” in line with the grievance. “I do know this won’t be what you anticipated.”
The subsequent day, Folino and Kalus met for breakfast and Kalus stated Adhereon was bancrupt. “Ashley stormed out after Kelley reminded her Kelley had earned fairness in the corporate and was entitled to her promised wage,” the grievance stated.
After Folino was lower off from the corporate e-mail server, Kalus texted: “Company is broke. End of story. End of firm. End of friendship.”
“The Weinzweigs’ actions have been designed and supposed by the Weinzweigs to squeeze Kelley out of Adhereon by … excluding Kelley from collaborating as a member of administration and as a shareholder of Adhereon and … inflicting Kelley monetary misery by the denial of her previous and future wages and her share of the worth and distributions of Adhereon,” the grievance stated.
Folino sued for breach of contract in May of 2018, and the case has been twisting and turning since.
The Illinois secretary of state’s company database lists Adhereon as dissolved.
The Weinzweigs have argued there are just about no property left in Adhereon and the commercialization licenses for the UMass-developed patents are held by Novaplast, which they management.
This summer season Judge Allen Price Walker denied a request by Folino to put the property of Adhereon into receivership, however ordered the Weinzweigs to not switch any property “apart from in the odd course of enterprise operations.”
Folino is at present chief of employees on the Paulson Institute, a suppose tank based by former U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.
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On Twitter: @PatrickAnderso_
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