An Athens company whose products have been used by the Atlanta Braves and University of Georgia sports teams has been ordered to pay more than $5 million to a manufacturer it failed to reimburse for a massive supply of disinfectant equipment.
ByoPlanet and its CEO Richard “Rick” O’Shea were blasted by a Canadian judge who said in a May 21 ruling that their “reprehensible,” “reckless” and “abusive” attempts to avoid paying Promark Electronics warranted sanctions.
O’Shea is a wealthy former professional golfer who lives in a luxury waterfront home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, court records show. ByoPlanet and O’Shea’s associated entity Good Salt are based on Old Monroe Road in Athens.
Major sports organizations have used ByoPlanet’s “cooling technology” for performance and recovery, the company stated in a June 2023 news release. Court records show that O’Shea was promoting ByoPlanet products in association with the Braves and other sports franchises as recently as April 28.
Neither ByoPlanet nor O’Shea responded to inquiries about the money they owe Promark, which is headquartered in Montreal, Quebec. The Braves and UGA teams are not involved in the legal action.
According to court records, ByoPlanet contracted with Promark in 2020 to fulfill increasing orders from Clorox for disinfectant spray units during the pandemic. Promark supplied more than 60,000 parts to ByoPlanet, which was loaned $6 million by Clorox for the deal.
In 2021, ByoPlanet’s partnership with Clorox soured, and the companies settled litigation over the loan, records show.
“ByoPlanet was stuck with thousands of products that it could not sell given its fractured relationship with its main client and partner,” Quebec Superior Court Judge Eleni Yiannakis said of the Clorox partnership.
The judge noted in a March 12 ruling that ByoPlanet’s financial situation worsened in 2021 when it was sued by a different supplier claiming almost $2 million in unpaid invoices.
She said that by late 2021, Promark claimed it was owed more than $5 million for the parts it supplied to ByoPlanet. The ensuing dispute in the Montreal court intensified when ByoPlanet sought more than $8 million, alleging the Promark units were defective.
Yiannakis found in Promark’s favor following a December 2023 bench trial. She said ByoPlanet’s defective products claim was a “manifestly unfounded” ruse.
“ByoPlanet had to find a reason not to pay the outstanding amount that was clearly owing to Promark, or at least buy some time,” the judge said.
On March 12, Yiannakis ordered ByoPlanet to pay Promark almost $5 million and said she would consider an additional judgment to punish ByoPlanet and O’Shea for “attempting to defeat the ends of justice.”
In her May 21 ruling, the judge awarded Promark just over $500,000, about a fifth of which O’Shea personally has to pay. She said O’Shea was jointly responsible for the rest of the payment as he was “essentially the one pulling all the strings.”
O’Shea had tried to make ByoPlanet judgment-proof through a series of questionable company transactions involving Good Salt and another associated entity, Yiannakis said. She said O’Shea voluntarily dissolved ByoPlanet in January, moved its employees to Good Salt, then reactivated ByoPlanet in March, the same day his attorneys from powerhouse firm Dentons told the court they no longer represented him or ByoPlanet.
After dissolving Good Salt in late April, O’Shea publicly promoted its products at a sports conference in North Carolina, the judge said. She said O’Shea’s subsequent “catch me if you can” tactics include avoiding service of court records, ceasing participation in the case and manipulating his companies to avoid liability.
“It is difficult to imagine a case more appropriate than this one to grant punitive damages,” Yiannakis said. “O’Shea’s conduct is simply reprehensible. Prior to the (March 12) judgment, he had already tried every trick in the book to avoid paying Promark.”
Promark is now attempting to recover the $5.4 million it is owed by ByoPlanet and O’Shea in a Florida court case. Attorneys Alejandra Iglesia and Jason Novak, who represent Promark in Florida and Canada, respectively, said the company may also try to get payment from O’Shea and his companies through a Georgia court.
“Money is traceable. It doesn’t disappear. It doesn’t vanish into thin air,” Iglesia said. “We are leaving no stone unturned to find where the money went and collect it.”
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