BREAKING: DARTS Transit Managers Sue for Defamation and Retaliation

Lawrence P. Schaefer

The law firm of Schaefer Halleen LLC announces two former leaders of DARTS Transportation Department, Kevin Raun and Robert Loeffler, have brought suit against the embattled transit services company, alleging their forced resignations in 2014 were the direct result of raising the same compliance issues which ultimately led the Metropolitan Council to terminate two contracts with DARTS in September 2014, for falsified records and inadequately maintained buses.  They allege further that since the cancellation of these contracts, amounting to$13.7 million dollars over five years for Metro Mobility and Transit Link services, DARTS has publically defamed both former managers by explaining the falsified records and other serious compliance issues were a direct result of Raun and Loeffler’s instructions and/or their inadequate training of staff.

Lead counsel for Raun and Loeffler, Larry Schaefer at Schaefer Halleen, explains: “The Met Council has been informed that the instructions regarding trip data alteration which was exposed in the audit came at the instruction of Mr. Krishnan, who at the time was DARTS CFO and had replaced Mr. Raun as the Transportation Director (under the new title “Chief Strategy and Operations Officer”).  DARTS President, Greg Konat, brought his friend Krishnan in to take over this function from Mr. Raun while Raun was still leading the Department, even though Mr. Krishnan had just been the subject of huge fines and penalties stemming from his illegal practices while he was the CFO of Digi International, Inc.”  In July 2013, the SEC fined Krishnan$60,000 and prohibited Krishnan from working as an officer or director of a publicly traded company for five years, after the agency’s public Complaint against Krishnan alleged a “lack of management integrity” in discharging his CFO duties at Digi International, Inc.

“Krishnan’s hire not only ultimately resulted in my clients being forced out of positions they performed well and expected to continue in until retirement,” explained Schaefer, “but has led to the further tragedy of the devastating audit and contract cancellation, and to the planned layoff of most DARTS Transportation Department employees when the contract cancellations go into effect on November 9, 2014.”

Schaefer, who has successfully prosecuted many significant class action cases, said this lawsuit “could be a vehicle to raise the wrongful termination claims of all of the DARTS Transportation employees who will lose their jobs because of Konat and Krishnan’s lack of management integrity, and the DARTS Board’s lack of effective oversight over these executive,” he concluded.

View a PDF of the DART Complaint