Nasser Kazeminy, a businessman and friend of Norm Coleman, on Friday issued a statement questioning the credibility of a former associate who said Kazeminy tried to funnel $100,000 to a company that employed Coleman's wife.
The statement by Kazeminy's spokeswoman in Minneapolis said that B.J. Thomas, the former chief financial officer of Houston-based Deep Marine Technology Inc., was fired because he failed to disclose a previous sanction by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The administrative proceeding against Thomas in 1997 prevented him from performing certain accounting activities.
Thomas, a former conservative radio talk show host, was CFO at Deep Marine from 2002 to December 2007.
Thomas stated in a sworn deposition March 19 that he had informed Kazeminy of his situation with the SEC in "2004, 2005." He said he informed Deep Marine CEO Paul McKim of the situation in 2001, before his appointment as finance chief of the company.
Neither Kazeminy nor McKim voiced any concerns over his SEC sanction, Thomas said in his deposition. But in December 2007, Thomas said, he was asked to resign from Deep Marine for reasons related to his limitations with the SEC.
Kazeminy, a wealthy Iranian-born businessman, and his spokeswoman, Amy Rotenberg, refused to comment further Friday.
The statement said Thomas was fired for not disclosing the SEC sanction, so "it is, therefore, not surprising that both Mr. Thomas and Mr. McKim would participate in disseminating these inaccurate and untruthful comments in order to pursue their own financial gain."
The Star Tribune obtained a copy of Thomas' deposition corroborating some allegations in a lawsuit McKim filed last year after he left the company at odds with Kazeminy, who had a controlling financial interest. McKim's lawsuit alleges that Kazeminy directed Deep Marine to pay Minneapolis insurance agency Hays Companies $100,000 to benefit Norm and Laurie Coleman.