Virginia Lawyers Weekly VA Lawyers Weekly
Type of action: Corporate dissolution
Injuries alleged: Fraud, mismanagement of funds
Name of case: Kongolo v. Papillon Air, Inc. and Kindambu
Court: Loudoun County Circuit Court
Case no.: CL 20007391
Tried before: Judge
Name of judge or mediator: Judge James Howe Brown
Date resolved: 10/11/2022
Special damages: $3,200,000
Demand: $3,200,000
Offer: $400,000
Verdict or settlement: Verdict
Amount: $831,807.99
Attorney for plaintiff (and city): James P. Magner, Leesburg
Description of case: Plaintiff is a citizen of the Democratic Republic of the Congo who loaned $3.2 million to the defendant, Didier Kindambu, for the purpose of starting up an aviation business based in Leesburg.
Defendant squandered most of the money and, separately, was investigated, arrested and convicted of fraud related to federal Payroll Protection Plan loan abuse. Plaintiff was stranded in the DRC due to COVID travel restrictions, while the assets of the company were being seized by the federal government.
Plaintiff hired counsel to attempt to recover any amount of the funds he had loaned to company that could be recovered. Counsel was able to get a corporate receiver appointed who managed to secure and liquidate assets in the amount of $831,807.99.
Kindambu then challenged the distribution of corporate assets to the plaintiff under the grounds that there was no documentation of the loans from the plaintiff and, as a 50% shareholder of the company, Kindambu was entitled to half of the funds.
The plaintiff prevailed at trial in proving that the intent of the parties was that the funds from the plaintiff were intended as a loan and that repayment of those funds was always a term of their agreement, even though no formal loan agreement had ever been signed.
The court ordered that all the funds, less certain costs, collected by the receiver would be turned over to the plaintiff.
Plaintiff’s counsel James P. Magner provided case information.
[022-T-160]
