The 10-story building at 44 N. Cook St. is one of two buildings and a parking garage that make up First Avenue Plaza. (BusinessDen file)
A judge has ordered the co-owner of a Cherry Creek IT firm not to cash a nearly $300,000 check for fear that it will wreck the company while its founders squabble in court.
“LucidPoint has demonstrated that (Kevin) Seba’s conduct is causing and will continue to cause immediate and irreparable injury to LucidPoint,” Judge Robert Lung ruled May 12.
LucidPoint, at 44 Cook St., handles cloud consulting and computer hardware needs for business clients. It was formed in 2017 by Mike Fontaine, of Denver, and Seba of Littleton. Fontaine and Seba each hold 50% of the voting shares of the company.
In December, Seba sued Fontaine and LucidPoint, accusing his business partner of running an “oppressive, if not fraudulent” racket “to enrich himself using company assets while at the same time damaging the value of the company and the value of Mr. Seba’s shares.”
Kevin Seba. (LucidPoint)
Seba claims that Fontaine calls his scheme Greater Than Ezra, a reference to the rock band Better Than Ezra. One fan theory for the band’s name is that its members wanted to be named Ezra but, upon learning of another band named Ezra, called it Better Than Ezra.
Seba alleges that Fontaine and an accountant plan to steadily increase Fontaine’s salary to $500,000 per year and then move LucidPoint’s assets to a new company — similar, but greater than, LucidPoint — leaving Seba with half of a worthless firm. Fontaine denies that.
Fontaine is countersuing Seba for extreme and outrageous conduct, among other claims. He says that Seba illegally accessed LucidPoint’s payroll system to decrease Fontaine’s pay by 44%, and has been reading employees’ emails and eyeing their calendars.
In the midst of this contentious court case, on May 7, Seba had FirstBank issue two cashier’s checks from LucidPoint to its co-owners. Fontaine’s check was for $306,000 and Seba’s for $294,000. Fontaine, who did not approve of the distributions and has not cashed his check, immediately asked Judge Lung in Castle Rock to bar Seba from cashing his.
LucidPoint’s bank account has $1.8 million in it, leaving it underfunded by $1 million, Fontaine told the judge. It needs to cover two payroll periods this month and another $2.9 million in bills. Plus, a major client may be owed $2 million from LucidPoint, Fontaine explained.
“Missing payroll would be disastrous because (LucidPoint) employees are already aware of and concerned by the ongoing litigation,” Fontaine and LucidPoint told Lung on May 9.
Mike Fontaine. (LucidPoint)
Seba took issue with the emergency motion “where there is no emergency,” called it “the height of hypocrisy,” and said that “Fontaine’s bad acts should not be further rewarded.”
“After months of declaring that a 50% shareholder, director and officer is free to do whatever he wishes with the company bank account, and months of happily violating the company’s governing documents so long as it enriched him, Mr. Fontaine now seeks to block Mr. Seba from causing LucidPoint to issue standard distributions,” Seba’s lawyers wrote.
But Lung sided with Fontaine. In his order, he noted that “LucidPoint’s bank account does not have enough money currently to cover upcoming payroll for the month or the more than $2.9 million in bills due.” He prohibited Seba from cashing his check for two weeks.
“Mr. Seba has complied with the order,” said Colin Moriarty, an attorney for the co-founder, “and looks forward to a full determination on the merits of the underlying disputes.”
Seba’s lawyers are Thomas Walsh III from the T. Walsh Law Firm in Greenwood Village and Moriarty with the firm Moriarty Underhill, which is also in Greenwood Village.
Fontaine’s lawyers are Peter Gergely, Ryan Fletcher, Kristen Souther and Alana LeFebvre with Merchant & Gould in Denver. They and Fontaine declined to comment.
The 10-story building at 44 N. Cook St. is one of two buildings and a parking garage that make up First Avenue Plaza. (BusinessDen file)
A judge has ordered the co-owner of a Cherry Creek IT firm not to cash a nearly $300,000 check for fear that it will wreck the company while its founders squabble in court.
“LucidPoint has demonstrated that (Kevin) Seba’s conduct is causing and will continue to cause immediate and irreparable injury to LucidPoint,” Judge Robert Lung ruled May 12.
LucidPoint, at 44 Cook St., handles cloud consulting and computer hardware needs for business clients. It was formed in 2017 by Mike Fontaine, of Denver, and Seba of Littleton. Fontaine and Seba each hold 50% of the voting shares of the company.
In December, Seba sued Fontaine and LucidPoint, accusing his business partner of running an “oppressive, if not fraudulent” racket “to enrich himself using company assets while at the same time damaging the value of the company and the value of Mr. Seba’s shares.”
Kevin Seba. (LucidPoint)
Seba claims that Fontaine calls his scheme Greater Than Ezra, a reference to the rock band Better Than Ezra. One fan theory for the band’s name is that its members wanted to be named Ezra but, upon learning of another band named Ezra, called it Better Than Ezra.
Seba alleges that Fontaine and an accountant plan to steadily increase Fontaine’s salary to $500,000 per year and then move LucidPoint’s assets to a new company — similar, but greater than, LucidPoint — leaving Seba with half of a worthless firm. Fontaine denies that.
Fontaine is countersuing Seba for extreme and outrageous conduct, among other claims. He says that Seba illegally accessed LucidPoint’s payroll system to decrease Fontaine’s pay by 44%, and has been reading employees’ emails and eyeing their calendars.
In the midst of this contentious court case, on May 7, Seba had FirstBank issue two cashier’s checks from LucidPoint to its co-owners. Fontaine’s check was for $306,000 and Seba’s for $294,000. Fontaine, who did not approve of the distributions and has not cashed his check, immediately asked Judge Lung in Castle Rock to bar Seba from cashing his.
LucidPoint’s bank account has $1.8 million in it, leaving it underfunded by $1 million, Fontaine told the judge. It needs to cover two payroll periods this month and another $2.9 million in bills. Plus, a major client may be owed $2 million from LucidPoint, Fontaine explained.
“Missing payroll would be disastrous because (LucidPoint) employees are already aware of and concerned by the ongoing litigation,” Fontaine and LucidPoint told Lung on May 9.
Mike Fontaine. (LucidPoint)
Seba took issue with the emergency motion “where there is no emergency,” called it “the height of hypocrisy,” and said that “Fontaine’s bad acts should not be further rewarded.”
“After months of declaring that a 50% shareholder, director and officer is free to do whatever he wishes with the company bank account, and months of happily violating the company’s governing documents so long as it enriched him, Mr. Fontaine now seeks to block Mr. Seba from causing LucidPoint to issue standard distributions,” Seba’s lawyers wrote.
But Lung sided with Fontaine. In his order, he noted that “LucidPoint’s bank account does not have enough money currently to cover upcoming payroll for the month or the more than $2.9 million in bills due.” He prohibited Seba from cashing his check for two weeks.
“Mr. Seba has complied with the order,” said Colin Moriarty, an attorney for the co-founder, “and looks forward to a full determination on the merits of the underlying disputes.”
Seba’s lawyers are Thomas Walsh III from the T. Walsh Law Firm in Greenwood Village and Moriarty with the firm Moriarty Underhill, which is also in Greenwood Village.
Fontaine’s lawyers are Peter Gergely, Ryan Fletcher, Kristen Souther and Alana LeFebvre with Merchant & Gould in Denver. They and Fontaine declined to comment.
