The owner of an Elkhart payroll company refuses to answer the allegations in the first of several lawsuits from banks and former clients, citing an investigation being conducted by a U.S. district attorney.
This story by Jordan Fouts originally appeared in The Elkhart Truth.
Owner and former CEO Najeeb Khan and Interlogic Outsourcing Inc. (IOI) have been the subject of multiple lawsuits since July, when an Ohio bank claimed it could lose hundreds of millions of dollars after Interlogic overdrafted its account and didn’t repay the money. Cleveland-based KeyBank alleges that it could lose $122 million to $220 million after Khan had Interlogic make a series of wire transfers in early July.
The bank alleges that Khan knew there wasn’t enough money to cover the transfers.
In a separate bankruptcy issue, the company has provided the court with a list of more than 7,000 customers who are owed money. And Khan has asked for more time to respond to a lawsuit in an Elkhart County court filed jointly by about 20 local clients.
Khan filed a response to the bank’s lawsuit on Aug. 27. In answer to most of the allegations in the complaint, he chooses to exercise his right not to self-incriminate.
“The subject matter of the complaint is the basis for at least one investigation currently being conducted by the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio,” he says repeatedly. “Exercising his rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, Defendant respectfully declines to answer these allegations on the ground that his answers might tend to incriminate him.”
He also asks that his refusal to answer be treated by the court as a denial of the allegations.
The only things Khan confirms in the filing are a statement that Interlogic is a payroll processing company that is based in Elkhart and does business in Ohio, and a statement that he lives in Michigan and is the owner and former president of the company.
Also on Tuesday, attorneys for Khan asked the court for an extension to the time he has to file an answer to the lawsuit. They asked that the Sept. 5 deadline be reset to Oct. 8, saying they need more time to investigate the claims.
