Venumadhav Pasupuleti, who has proposed a giant information processing center for Keahole, Kona, has a background that suggests he may have trouble delivering on his promises.<\/p>\n
In Dayton, Ohio, Pasupuleti has incorporated three businesses since 1996, with all three companies bearing the Megasoft name (MegaSoft Technologies, inc., Megasoft Corp., and Megasoft LLC). A court records lists a fourth, Megasoft US, although no company by that name ha filed to do business in Ohio. Two of the companies have been involuntarily dissolved by the Ohio Department of Taxation. That step is taken, says Patrick Galloway of the Ohio Secretary of State\u2019s office, when the Taxation Department informs the Secretary of State that the corporation has unsatisfied tax obligations or has failed to file corporate franchise tax reports. The third company, Megasoft LLC, incorporated in 2002, is still listed as an active business on the Ohio Secretary of State\u2019s business registration web site. Yet a creditor who obtained a default judgment against Megasoft LLC has not been able to locate Pasupuleti or any of his assets.<\/p>\n
The Montgomery County recorder\u2019s office shows 10 liens against Pasupuleti\u2019s businesses, including a federal tax lien for more than $60,000 and a variety of liens for state taxes, including withholding tax, unemployment tax, and workers\u2019 compensation obligations. Charles Geidner, the attorney who brought several of the cases on the state\u2019s behalf against these businesses, told Environment Hawai`i <\/em>that while he could not release the total amounts outstanding, he would characterize the obligations as \u201cfairly significant.\u201d Also, he said, \u201call state debts bear interest from the date they accrue.\u201d Some of the judgments go back as far as 1998. \u201cThe important thing to remember is that when you don\u2019t pay withholding taxes, you\u2019re taking money that belongs in a trust fund. It\u2019s the government\u2019s money,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The Marriott Corp. has an outstanding judgment against Megasoft LLC and Megasoft US for an unpaid hotel bill that, in 2002, came to about $15,000. The attorney handling that case, in which repeated efforts to serve Pasupuleti with subpoenas were frustrated, said that to him, \u201cMr. Pasupuleti is a ghost.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIf you find where he is living, please let me know,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n The Montgomery County recorder\u2019s office and court files disclose several outstanding legal claims against Venu Pasupuleti, including a $69,000 federal tax lien, filed in 2001, and a 1998 judgment against him in favor of the Fifth Third Bank of Western Ohio, in the amount of $47,820. In nearly every case, the docket shows that attempts to serve Pasupuleti and his associates with subpoenas or notices to appear are frustrated. When court officers arrive at his last known address, they are informed by landlords that he has moved, or when attempts are made to send notices by certified mail, they are returned, unclaimed.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Official Bios<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Environment Hawai`i <\/em>attempted to obtain a copy of the business plan Pasupuleti has given to NELHA to support his plan for the computing facility. We were informed it was confidential. However, biographical information on the two principals of the operation \u2013 Pasupuleti and Ramana Grandhi, a professor of aerospace engineering at Wright State University in Dayton \u2013 was provided.<\/p>\n Pasupuleti was identified as the chairman and chief executive officer of Megasoft. (He incorporated Megasoft as a sole proprietorship in Hawai`i last December, giving a private mail box at a UPS store as his address.) He claimed to have \u201c20+ years experience in the business management and information technology services industries\u2026 He formed the company in 1994 to assist corporate and non-corporate clients to improve the management of their information technology and information system needs.\u201d He lists several institutions of higher learning he attended in India and the United States. He says he graduated from the Bureau of Data Processing Systems in India, but does not indicate whether he has received any college degree.<\/p>\n Grandhi, well known in the aerospace engineering field, holds an endowed chair at Wright State. Pasupuleti has indicated that he is an advisory to the company who will bring to the company \u201ca wealth of knowledge\u201d and \u201cnumerous contacts within the industry.\u201d Grandhi has not responded to an email question about the nature of his relationship to Megasoft or Pasupuleti.<\/p>\n Environment Hawai`i <\/em>has attempted to reach Pasupuleti \u2013 by email, through hand-delivery of queries through third parties, and by certified mail. (We were not given any telephone contact information for him, nor could we track any phone listing down.) Pasupuleti left one message on this reporter\u2019s cell phone, promising to call back later (though he had not odne so by press time). The call-back number that appeared on the cell phone screen may indicate Pasupuleti prefers not to have his calls returned: 000 012 3456.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Other MegaSoft<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Anyone doing a cursory internet search on the \u201cmegasoft\u201d name is quickly led to a huge company based in Hyderabad, India, Pasupuleti\u2019s hometown (according to information in Who\u2019s Who in America<\/em>). That publicly traded company is one of the world\u2019s largest providers of outsourcing services to large multinational corporations<\/p>\n The Indian corporation has an office outside Washington, D.C. Ravi Singh is its director. Singh renounced any link between his company and that of Pasupuleti. \u201cHe has absolutely nothing to do with our company,\u201d he told Environment Hawai`i.<\/em><\/p>\n We attempted to ask Ron Baird, administrator of NELHA, what background checks he had performed on Pasupuleti. He had not returned calls by press time. Ted Liu, director of the Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism \u2013 NELHA\u2019s parent agency \u2013 said he was confident that Baird had indeed conducted sufficient due diligence.<\/p>\n — Patricia Tummons<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Venumadhav Pasupuleti, who has proposed a giant information processing center for Keahole, Kona, has a background that suggests he may have trouble delivering on his promises. In Dayton, Ohio, Pasupuleti has incorporated three businesses since 1996, with all three companies … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[374],"tags":[7],"class_list":["post-7958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-may-2007","tag-patricia-tummons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7958","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7958"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7958\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}