DETROIT — A federal jury in the Eastern District of Michigan returned a verdict of fraud against KCA Engineering operated by Dennis Gore, a former Saline engineer who now lives in China. The case was filed by a company headed by internationally renowned automotive entrepreneur Malcolm Bricklin, called V Cars.
The federal jury awarded $2 million in compensatory and exemplary damages to V Cars LLC for fraud and other wrongdoings. The case is related to V Cars LLC’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) case currently pending against Chery Automobile Co. Ltd. in federal court in Michigan and an international arbitration award that V Cars LLC obtained in Hong Kong against Chery Automobile Co. Ltd., which has not been paid.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION BY SOMMERS SCHWARTZ, PC ATTORNEYS:
The federal jury awarded $2,000,000.00 in compensatory and exemplary (punitive) damages to V Cars, LLC for fraud and other wrongdoings. The case is related to V Cars, LLC’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) case currently pending against Chery Automobile Co., Ltd. in federal court in Michigan and an international arbitration award that V Cars, LLC obtained in Hong Kong against Chery Automobile Co., Ltd., which has not been paid.
In the case, V Cars, LLC claimed that KCA Engineering, LLC was a recipient of a lucrative contract from Chery Automobile Co., Ltd. as a payoff for Dennis Gore’s covert help to the top management at Chery to obtain $200,000,000.00 in financing for a joint venture to export cars to North America through Mr. Bricklin’s company. At the time, Mr. Gore was employed as an officer of V Cars, LLC. The company claimed at trial that while on V Cars, LLC’s payroll, Mr. Gore and a team of engineers working under him performed side services for Chery to help Chery make a separate deal with Chrysler Corporation. V Cars, LLC claimed it located $200,000,000.00 for its own deal with Chery to import Chery-sourced cars into the United States but that unknown to V Cars’ management, Mr. Gore and Chery’s executives, including its Chief Executive Officer, Yin Tongyao, spent months discussing sensitive company information in a private email channel set up by Mr. Gore at the request of Chery. The company claimed that when it discovered the communications, Mr. Gore relocated to Shanghai, China where KCA continued to be paid under a series of contracts between KCA Engineering, LLC, and third parties. An eight-person jury took less than one day to return a verdict in favor of V Cars, LLC after several days of testimony.
The case is captioned V Cars, LLC v. KCA Engineering, LLC, United States District Court For The Eastern District of Michigan, Case No. 2:11-cv-12805, Hon. Bernard A. Friedman. Attorneys for Plaintiff, V Cars, LLC: Sommers Schwartz, P.C., lead counsel Andrew Kochanowski, and Kopelwitz Ostrow Ferguson Weiselberg Keechl, co-counsel Fred A. Schwartz. Attorneys for Defendant, KCA Engineering, LLC: Best Heyns & Schroeder, P.C., lead counsel Keith A. Schroeder.
