WARSAW — The lawsuit between Michael DeWitt and Dustin and Lindsey Johns, all of Syracuse, continues in Kosciusko Superior Court 4. A third amended complaint for damages was filed by Dewitt Friday, Jan. 17. This third amendment came after a motion to dismiss the second amended complaint with prejudice was filed Dec. 19, several days after the complaint was refiled.

Following the motion to dismiss, the court allowed Dewitt to either file a responsive pleading or a third amended complaint. If neither action was taken the court would make a ruling after Jan. 24.

The latest filing lists 10 counts in the 22 page complaint and provided seven exhibits.

The factual background listed includes the Johns’ purchase of three parcels of property owned by DeWitt at 11199 NE Wawasee Drive, Syracuse, 11200 NE Wawasee Drive and 11190 NE Wawasee Drive for the price of $4 million; Johns proposing to partially pay for the real estate with Travel Lite Stock he says has a value of $2.1 million with a cash payment of $1.9 million; a purchase agreement amendment with Johns providing DeWitt with financial, accounting and inventory information; DeWitt’s agreement to enter into a stock purchase agreement and close of the real estate transaction; DeWitt’s discovering the deception; and Travel Lite diluting its stock to DeWitt’s detriment.

The document states during the time Johns was offering stock to DeWitt at $2.1 million, Johns purchased one share from Keith Troyer for $16,917 and .4 shares for $5.167, while he claimed the stock held a value of $600,000 per share.

Count 1 of the suit deals with fraud by Johns and Travel Lite, noting DeWitt was defrauded into signing the purchase agreement amendment by Johns making several material misrepresentations of past or existing facts to DeWitt. These included a false statement of fact 3.5 shares of Travel Lite Stock held a value of $2.1 million when the value of the stock was much less than represented by Johns; that the stock held that value because the company had a net profit of $2.7 million when in fact it did not; that there were over 500 units in backlog and more than 1,000 ordered units pending, when in fact the numbers were less; and a Jake Vogel was his business partner and had invested more than $5 million in the company when Vogel was not a business partner and had never invested the $5 million.

That count also notes Johns emailed DeWitt’s real estate agent financial statements, which were then provided to DeWitt. Those documents showed a misrepresentation the company had accounts receivable of $2,051,711.06, a total inventory of $1,654,598.65, total current assets of $4,114,105.17, total current liabilities of $1,560,437.29 and total liabilities and equity of $4,132,696.40, when those numbers had been manipulated by recording fictitious receivables, sales, inventory value, count and assets well below the amount actually held. It also notes on the profit and loss financial statements provided it showed a total income of $15,398,487.82, a cross profit of $7,455,607.44 and a net income of $2,745,786.51. However, DeWitt later discovered the true figures were much lower and Johns and his wife had manipulated that data to show artificially high revenue and profit numbers to convince DeWitt the stock he was accepting was worth the amount stated

DeWitt also states an inventory list he was provided contained several material misrepresentations of past or existing fact, including the amount of fixed goods, net and gross WIP and accounts receivable that was manipulated by Johns and the two knew it contained false statements or acted in reckless disregard for the falsity of the statements.

Counts 2, 3, 4 and 5 focus on constructive fraud, federal securities fraud, breach of fiduciary duty and shareholder oppression. It is noted under these counts Johns, as majority shareholder, recapitalized the company with holders of unsecured debt by issuing additional shares without DeWitt’s knowledge and when DeWitt acquired his 3.5 shares of stock, the company had 100 total shares, plummeting the shares to .18 in total, holding minimal if any value.

The remaining counts focus on the breach of a purchase agreement, breach of the stock purchase agreement, two counts of negligent misrepresentation by Johns and/or his wife and violation of Indiana Uniform Securities Act.

DeWitt is asking the court to enter a judgement awarding monetary/treble damages, attorney fees under the Crime Victims Statue, pre-judgment interest as allowed, and costs in the court action.