Telestrata, LLC v. NetTalk.com, Inc.

126 F. Supp. 3d 1344, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 111565, 2015 WL 4943591
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Florida
DecidedAugust 19, 2015
DocketCase No. 1:14-CV-24137-JLK
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 126 F. Supp. 3d 1344 (Telestrata, LLC v. NetTalk.com, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Telestrata, LLC v. NetTalk.com, Inc., 126 F. Supp. 3d 1344, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 111565, 2015 WL 4943591 (S.D. Fla. 2015).

Opinion

PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION

JAMES LAWRENCE KING, UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

THE COURT, having received and reviewed the Motion for a Temporary [1347]*1347Restraining Order and Motion for Preliminary Injunction filed by Plaintiff (collectively, the “Motions”), the affidavit and documents attached thereto, Defendants’ Response and Plaintiffs Reply, and having conducted an evidentiary hearing on August 3 through 5, 2015, and having reviewed the file and being otherwise advised in the premises, hereby makes the following findings of fact and conclusions of law:

FINDINGS OF FACT

Samer Bishay is a member of Plaintiff Telestrata, and is also its manager. He is also CEO and co-owner of a company named Iristel, a Canadian telecommunications company. In 2011, Iristel entered into an agreement with Defendant NetTALK, to provide termination services for calls made by NetTALK customers to Canadian phone numbers, and also to provide phone numbers to NetTALK customers located in Canada.

In approximately May 2013, NetTALK was unable to pay its monthly bills to Iristel for services. Defendant Nick Kyr-iakides, the Vice President of NetTALK at the time, told Mr. Bishay that NetTALK’s largest lender (Vicis Capital) was restructuring and shutting down. In order for NetTALK to have operating capital, Mr. Bishay made two personal loans to Net-TALK, one in the amount of $300,000 in June and another personal loan of $200,000 in July 2013. On or about June 27, 2013, Mr. Bishay executed a Letter of Intent with NetTALK, pursuant to which the parties agreed to further negotiate an agreement whereby Mr. Bishay would be granted 68.88% ownership interest in Net-TALK, in exchange for agreeing to make certain payments over time to NetTALK totaling up to $3.5 million dollars.

Under the terms of the Letter of Intent, the parties agreed that NetTALK would complete restructuring of the Vicis Capital debt. The Letter of Intent was non-binding, and expired on July 15, 2013. Notwithstanding this provision, NetTALK’s CEO, Takis Kyriakides, continued to request capital payments from Samer Bishay after . July 15, 2013, and Mr. Bishay continued to invest additional capital.

Between July 15, 2013, and early January 2014, Mr. Kyriakides and NetTALK continued to request and accept the payments, continued to use the funds, and did not inform Mr. Bishay that NetTALK considered the Letter of Intent to be expired. In early January 2014, Mr. Bishay flew to Miami, Florida to NetTALK’s offices, and met with the executives for NetTALK. In that meeting, for the first time, NetTALK informed Mr. Bishay of its position that the Letter of Intent had expired, and that Mr. Bishay did not own any interest in NetTALK. As of the time of that meeting, Mr. Bishay had paid cash to NetTALK for operating expenses in the approximate amount of $1.4 million, and Iristel had deferred collection of amounts due to it from NetTALK for services in the approximate amount of $1.8 million.

After further negotiation, the parties executed a second letter of intent dated February 20, 2014. Under the terms of that second letter of intent, a new company to be formed by Mr. Bishay (Plaintiff Telestrata) would be granted a 48.88% ownership interest in NetTALK, and would further be granted a warrant for an additional 20% ownership interest upon exercise. Between February 20, 2014, and March 11, 2014, the parties exchanged and made changes to drafts of final closing documentation to consummate the deal. On or just prior to March 3, 2014, Net-TALK’s Chief Financial .Officer, Defendant Steven Healy, drafted a “final” capitalization table as of February 28, 2014. This capitalization table contained three columns: the name of each shareholder of [1348]*1348NetTALK, the number of shares owned by that individual shareholder, and the percentage ownership interest owned by that individual shareholder. At the bottom of the two-page table, Mr. Healy indicated that the total number of outstanding shares of the Company were 52,048,221 shares.

In the capitalization table, Defendant Healy specifically identified the number of shares (and corresponding ownership percentage interest) of the Individual Defendants, as follows:

• Kyriakides Investments, Ltd. — 18,-985,539 shares, 36.477%
• Nick Kyriakides — 2,033,000, 3.906%
• Kenneth Hosfeld & Ana C. Imai — ■ 2,238,000, 4.300%
• Garry Praxinos — 183,000, 0.352%
• Angie Ilisie — 82,000, 0.158%

Mr. Healy also included a single line in the capitalization table, identifying the shareholder as the “2013 Stock Option Plan,”1 and identifying the 2012 Stock Option Plan owned 10,724,000 shares for a 20.604% interest. Mr. Healy did not indicate in the capitalization table that any of these shares had been granted or allocated to particular individuals. Defendant Shad Stastney, negotiating on behalf of Net-TALK and the Defendants, forwarded the capitalization table by email to Mr. Bishay and Telestrata on March 3, 2014. Defendants did not otherwise disclose to Teles-trata that any of the shares purportedly contained in the 2012 Stock Option Plan had been granted or allocated to particular individuals.

The Telestrata transaction closed on March 11, 2014, and the Company issued 25,441,170 shares of stock to Telestrata, and issued a warrant to Telestrata to obtain an additional 20% ownership interest upon exercise. NetTALK also executed a Promissory Note in favor of Telestrata for $4,071,939.84. As agreed to in the closing documents, Telestrata appointed three individuals to the Board of Directors of Net-TALK. Following the closing, the new Board of Directors for NetTALK issued a warrant to the management employees of NetTALK, pursuant to the closing documents, allowing for the grant of up to a 20% ownership interest upon exercise to the identified individuals. At no time, on or after March 11, 2014, did the Board of Directors consider or vote on any grant of shares to employees of NetTALK, including a purported grant of 9.9 million shares to the Individual Defendants.

In October 2014, the relationship between the parties deteriorated. Telestrata exercised its warrant on October 14, 2015. On October 15, 2014, the Company stated that it would formally issue the shares to Telestrata once it received the executed original warrant from Telestrata. On October 16, 2014, the Individual Defendants purported to exercise the management warrant, and immediately issued themselves an additional 24,280,000 shares of stock in the Company. The Individual Defendants then executed a Written Action of Shareholders dated October 16, 2014, in lieu of a meeting, in which they purported to vote as a majority of shareholders in NetTALK to remove the three directors that had been appointed by Telestrata. In their signature lines, they purported to exercise rights as owners of the additional 24,280,000 shares based upon the exercise of the management warrant, even though those shares of stock had not yet been issued by the transfer agent for NetTALK to them.

[1349]*1349In the written shareholder action, the amount of shares listed as being then-owned by the Individual Defendants was materially different from the number of shares listed in the capitalization table disclosed on March 3, 2014.

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126 F. Supp. 3d 1344, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 111565, 2015 WL 4943591, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/telestrata-llc-v-nettalkcom-inc-flsd-2015.