Sitnasuak Native Corporation Opens Lawsuit Against Three Directors
Sitnasuak Native Corporation announced on August 16th that it has filed a lawsuit against three of its own directors.
The complaint, filed in the Superior Court for the State of Alaska, alleges that Barbara Amarok, Edna Baker, and Charles Fagerstrom violated their fiduciary duties of loyalty and care by distributing an anonymous mailer that “misinformed Sitnasuak shareholders and damaged the corporation.”
Sitnasuak seeks the removal of the three directors from the Board, as well as damages to compensate for harm allegedly done to the corporation.
The mailer at the center of the lawsuit was sent to Sitnasuak shareholders in advance of what was supposed to be the 44th Annual Meeting of Shareholders on June 3rd. That meeting failed to reach quorum, leading the Board of Directors to reschedule for September 30th in Anchorage.
On the agenda for the upcoming meeting is the election of four directors to the board, as well as a vote on an amendment to lower the quorum requirement for shareholder meetings. Sitnasuak shareholders can vote in person at the meeting, or by proxy between now and September 27th.
KNOM will continue to cover developments in the lawsuit and update the story with information from all involved parties as it becomes available.
Image at top: Detail of the Sitnasuak Native Corporation building on Front Street in Nome. Photo: David Dodman, KNOM file.
I know one thing; I phoned your office to get information to transfer shares to my cousins; the lady who answered said fill out the papers and send them in because sometimes they look it over and transfer shares anyways; you will need a photocopy of the birth cirtificates and a letter from the notary public or lawyer to verify that you want to do this. Several weeks went by and I phoned and asked and someone said you cannot transfer shares to a cousin. Now I am out the lawyers fees because I believed the corporation would have hired someone they would trust to know their job. Still waiting on that.