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Plaintiffs in a convoluted lawsuit involving the last wishes of a charismatic religious leader have posted a draft copy of a proposed judicial remedy in the dispute.
Multnomah County Circuit Judge Leslie Roberts had previously ruled against the defendants in the case, who included a splinter group of Oregon followers of a group called Sikh Dharma. After the death of their spiritual leader, Yogi Bhajan, the defendants took control of the sect's nearly $1 billion corporate and non-profit empire and began enriching themselves while cutting out the group's New Mexico-based religious leaders.
WW laid out the details of the case in a cover story last summer.
The judge's remedy would leave the defendants in positions of legal authority but render them personally liable for misappropriated funds. It also addresses an unresolved question, tangential to the lawsuit itself but central to WW's reporting: The true last wishes of Yogi Bhajan.
Roberts' draft opinion on remedies notes that the corporate structure established after Bhajan's death may have been based on invalid or fraudulent documents, as alleged by the plaintiffs.
"The private plaintiffs may be very correct that all is not as it seems with the corporate documents," Roberts writes.
WWeek 2015