A shareholder of Patriot National Inc., which provides administrative services to insurance companies, has sued the company in Delaware based on allegations that its CEO made a series of detrimental decisions to retain control.
Shareholder Henry Wasik on Wednesday said that Patriot National Chief Executive Officer Steven Mariano has been using the company “as his personal piggy bank” to fight off potential challenges to his majority ownership. Mariano turned down investors seeking to exercise warrants, entered into a new credit agreement in order to pay larger dividends and turned down a $475 million purchase offer by Ebix Inc., among other detrimental actions, Wasik said.
“Mariano pressured the company’s board of directors to approve a series of strategic decisions, which had no proper purpose because they were designed to keep Mariano in his position of power at the company while fending off his creditors,” Wasik said. Wasik is represented by Eduard Korsinsky, Amy Miller and William Fields of Levi & Korsinsky LLP and Michael Kelly and Andrew Dupre of McCarter & English LLP.