07-19-2008, 03:08 PM
http://www.ethnicnewz.org/en/nh-temple-faces-eviction
NH Temple Faces Eviction
Lender Alleges Saraswati Mandiram Failed to Repay $1.2 Million loan
By Kara Becker
EPPING, N.H. â Saraswati Mandiram, the only Hindu temple in New Hampshire, will likely be forced from its 100-acre campus in Epping sometime this month.
The temple, which has existed on the property for 10 years, is desperately trying to fend off an eviction that was ordered on December 14, because it failed to repay a $1.2 million loan.
Located on the banks of the Lamprey River, the Hindu retreat boasts an auditorium, dining hall, woodworking and auto shops and a barn where animals such as cows and peacocks are raised. The temple also houses a private school, the Vivekananda Academy, from which students as young as 13 have been issued high school diplomas, say temple officials.
But beyond the rolling hills and well-manicured grounds lies a turbulent history of debt, alleged deceit and the cry of a temple that claims gross mistreatment.
The rocky relationship with the private Virginia-based lender Gourley and Gourley, LLC, spans nearly five years.
Court documents show that in the spring of 2003, temple owner Ramadheen Ramsamooj (in photo above), who is the head priest of the nonprofit religious and educational institution, approached the financial firm for a loan of $1.2 million.
The loan was to be used to expand the school â which had 24 pupils at the time â to reach a capacity of 300 students, according to Ramsamooj. What followed, claims the priest, was a run of bad luck that included a fire in January of 2004 that forced the school to halt further expansion plans.
The priest claims that a verbal agreement with Gourley and Gourley assured that after the fire, the lender would allow time for Saraswati Mandiram to rebuild before making further payments on the loan.
But Ramsamooj said that afterwards, the lender went back on the agreement and started foreclosure proceedings, telling Ramsamooj that the temple now owed $2.5 million.
What followed has been a slew of lawsuits and appeals from Ramsamooj and his lawyer, Joshua Gordon, of Concord, trying to prove that Gourley and Gourley has unfairly targeted the religious organization.
Court documents and interviews with representatives of Gourley, however, tell a different story.
After defaulting on their loan with Gourley and Gourley, the temple filed for bankruptcy in May of 2006 and there was a subsequent foreclosure auction of the real estate, which Ramsamooj says was then valued at $7 million.
An original buyer of the property defaulted, and the land was sold to the second highest bidder at the sale for $2 million. The buyer, G&G Epping, LLC, a subsidiary of the original lender Gourley and Gourley, has since tried to recapture ownership of the property but has been stalled by appeals from the temple.
"It's a simple story: a loan was made, the loan was not paid back, the land was collateral, and we exercised our rights," said Gourley and Gourley representative Demetris Voudouris. "The court has sided with us on every single case. I admit that we are hard money, not private money, so we are more expensive. But we also expect our borrowers to know what they're getting into when they sign and be able to stick to the commitments they make. It was a loan â everyone understood the terms and agreements."
Voudouris denied all accusations by Ramsamooj. "Nothing he is telling you is correct. He's lying, and these are all delay tactics that have proven to not be successful on any ground."
Voudouris also claimed that Ramsamooj originally said the loan was for a school and failed to mention its affiliation with a religious temple.
He said that Ramsamooj said that the school would have an ayurvedic medicine component, but only spoke of the Hindu temple years after the original loan. He suggested that Ramsamooj is using the religious component of the facility to gain sympathy in its eviction.
Yet Saraswati Mandiram's camp continues to insist that they have been unfairly targeted and taken advantage of because of Ramsamooj's religious and peaceful nature and lack of knowledge of business affairs.
They allege misrepresentation and fraud, saying that the lender created the third-party G&G Epping, LLC just to buy back the land so it could sell it to developers or subdivide it and then sell it later.
Voudouris, however, said Gourley and Gourley kept no secret about G&G Epping and noted that using such a subsidiary is common practice.
"When lenders foreclose, they always set up a separate legal entity â it happens all the time and is just good legal planning strategy to have in case something goes wrong," said Voudouris. "It's not a new story, nor is it uncommon practice. What you're seeing here is a man that is unwilling to take responsibility for his actions, and instead of dealing with it responsibly and taking steps to cure the deficit, he is reaching out in ways that are taking up not only our time but the court's time as well."
There is also dispute over whether the temple has made its loan payments. Voudouris maintains that Saraswati Mandiram only made the first few payments, and then secretly broke the loan agreement by taking out a second mortgage. But Ramsamooj maintains it has made good on the loan.
"We have not committed any wrongdoing," Ramsamooj said. He said that his temple had not missed payments and that Gourley and Gourley instead stopped accepting the templeâs payments.
"We have a mortgage, and have paid the mortgage company on time for two years. Without notice, they've stopped taking payments. We defaulted on our loan because they stopped taking money from our line of credit."
Voudouris said that the temple is making Gourley and Gourley out to be the bad guys in what is merely a simple case of a borrower not paying back his debt to the lender. "We're not bad people; we're not trying to do anything unscrupulous. But frankly we've had it with them. I'm sorry that this happened to him and that we couldn't work out a way to cure the debt, but this is our job and all we are doing is exercising our rights as lawful owners to property that has been found in several rulings to be ours."
Currently, there is an appeal filed by the temple at the New Hampshire Supreme Court that could take up to a year to resolve, but Gourley has already worked to put final eviction plans into action. Ramsamooj and his lawyer, Joshua Gordon, also filed an unsuccessful emergency appeal at Rockingham County Superior Court on December 14, a day before the scheduled eviction.
"We're hoping to prevent the purported owners of the land from evicting the priest to take any action from destroying the sanctity of the property while it's on appeal," said Gordon.
Ramsamooj said he has no plans to leave the Epping property and that he feels he has such a strong case that the judge will mediate a settlement.
"That eviction is unconscionable without giving us the due process of the law. We have no plans to move out yet," Ramsamooj said.
He said heâs also counting on media attention and a showing from supporters to help stave off the eviction. And he feels his plan is working.
During a follow up interview on December 26, the priest said that his temple had yet to be forced from its property.
"There must have been enough media pressure that they never followed through," said Ramsamooj. "We found out they never called the sheriff â they were just threatening us⦠They're just trying to intimidate us so we will leave on our own accord, but there is no way this is going to happen."
Voudouris, however, maintains that the eviction just hasn't been settled with the sheriff and that Gourley and Gourley is merely waiting for the finalized plans for Saraswati Mandiram to evacuate the property.
So far, the temple's 10 live-in residents, 16 animals and five large marble religious statues are still housed on the property.
"I'm not going to leave ⦠for someone to desecrate all that we have worshiped for 10 years," said Ramsamooj. "This is a predator lender who has taken us for a ride because we are docile in nature."
Source: IndiaNewEngland.com
NH Temple Faces Eviction
Lender Alleges Saraswati Mandiram Failed to Repay $1.2 Million loan
By Kara Becker
EPPING, N.H. â Saraswati Mandiram, the only Hindu temple in New Hampshire, will likely be forced from its 100-acre campus in Epping sometime this month.
The temple, which has existed on the property for 10 years, is desperately trying to fend off an eviction that was ordered on December 14, because it failed to repay a $1.2 million loan.
Located on the banks of the Lamprey River, the Hindu retreat boasts an auditorium, dining hall, woodworking and auto shops and a barn where animals such as cows and peacocks are raised. The temple also houses a private school, the Vivekananda Academy, from which students as young as 13 have been issued high school diplomas, say temple officials.
But beyond the rolling hills and well-manicured grounds lies a turbulent history of debt, alleged deceit and the cry of a temple that claims gross mistreatment.
The rocky relationship with the private Virginia-based lender Gourley and Gourley, LLC, spans nearly five years.
Court documents show that in the spring of 2003, temple owner Ramadheen Ramsamooj (in photo above), who is the head priest of the nonprofit religious and educational institution, approached the financial firm for a loan of $1.2 million.
The loan was to be used to expand the school â which had 24 pupils at the time â to reach a capacity of 300 students, according to Ramsamooj. What followed, claims the priest, was a run of bad luck that included a fire in January of 2004 that forced the school to halt further expansion plans.
The priest claims that a verbal agreement with Gourley and Gourley assured that after the fire, the lender would allow time for Saraswati Mandiram to rebuild before making further payments on the loan.
But Ramsamooj said that afterwards, the lender went back on the agreement and started foreclosure proceedings, telling Ramsamooj that the temple now owed $2.5 million.
What followed has been a slew of lawsuits and appeals from Ramsamooj and his lawyer, Joshua Gordon, of Concord, trying to prove that Gourley and Gourley has unfairly targeted the religious organization.
Court documents and interviews with representatives of Gourley, however, tell a different story.
After defaulting on their loan with Gourley and Gourley, the temple filed for bankruptcy in May of 2006 and there was a subsequent foreclosure auction of the real estate, which Ramsamooj says was then valued at $7 million.
An original buyer of the property defaulted, and the land was sold to the second highest bidder at the sale for $2 million. The buyer, G&G Epping, LLC, a subsidiary of the original lender Gourley and Gourley, has since tried to recapture ownership of the property but has been stalled by appeals from the temple.
"It's a simple story: a loan was made, the loan was not paid back, the land was collateral, and we exercised our rights," said Gourley and Gourley representative Demetris Voudouris. "The court has sided with us on every single case. I admit that we are hard money, not private money, so we are more expensive. But we also expect our borrowers to know what they're getting into when they sign and be able to stick to the commitments they make. It was a loan â everyone understood the terms and agreements."
Voudouris denied all accusations by Ramsamooj. "Nothing he is telling you is correct. He's lying, and these are all delay tactics that have proven to not be successful on any ground."
Voudouris also claimed that Ramsamooj originally said the loan was for a school and failed to mention its affiliation with a religious temple.
He said that Ramsamooj said that the school would have an ayurvedic medicine component, but only spoke of the Hindu temple years after the original loan. He suggested that Ramsamooj is using the religious component of the facility to gain sympathy in its eviction.
Yet Saraswati Mandiram's camp continues to insist that they have been unfairly targeted and taken advantage of because of Ramsamooj's religious and peaceful nature and lack of knowledge of business affairs.
They allege misrepresentation and fraud, saying that the lender created the third-party G&G Epping, LLC just to buy back the land so it could sell it to developers or subdivide it and then sell it later.
Voudouris, however, said Gourley and Gourley kept no secret about G&G Epping and noted that using such a subsidiary is common practice.
"When lenders foreclose, they always set up a separate legal entity â it happens all the time and is just good legal planning strategy to have in case something goes wrong," said Voudouris. "It's not a new story, nor is it uncommon practice. What you're seeing here is a man that is unwilling to take responsibility for his actions, and instead of dealing with it responsibly and taking steps to cure the deficit, he is reaching out in ways that are taking up not only our time but the court's time as well."
There is also dispute over whether the temple has made its loan payments. Voudouris maintains that Saraswati Mandiram only made the first few payments, and then secretly broke the loan agreement by taking out a second mortgage. But Ramsamooj maintains it has made good on the loan.
"We have not committed any wrongdoing," Ramsamooj said. He said that his temple had not missed payments and that Gourley and Gourley instead stopped accepting the templeâs payments.
"We have a mortgage, and have paid the mortgage company on time for two years. Without notice, they've stopped taking payments. We defaulted on our loan because they stopped taking money from our line of credit."
Voudouris said that the temple is making Gourley and Gourley out to be the bad guys in what is merely a simple case of a borrower not paying back his debt to the lender. "We're not bad people; we're not trying to do anything unscrupulous. But frankly we've had it with them. I'm sorry that this happened to him and that we couldn't work out a way to cure the debt, but this is our job and all we are doing is exercising our rights as lawful owners to property that has been found in several rulings to be ours."
Currently, there is an appeal filed by the temple at the New Hampshire Supreme Court that could take up to a year to resolve, but Gourley has already worked to put final eviction plans into action. Ramsamooj and his lawyer, Joshua Gordon, also filed an unsuccessful emergency appeal at Rockingham County Superior Court on December 14, a day before the scheduled eviction.
"We're hoping to prevent the purported owners of the land from evicting the priest to take any action from destroying the sanctity of the property while it's on appeal," said Gordon.
Ramsamooj said he has no plans to leave the Epping property and that he feels he has such a strong case that the judge will mediate a settlement.
"That eviction is unconscionable without giving us the due process of the law. We have no plans to move out yet," Ramsamooj said.
He said heâs also counting on media attention and a showing from supporters to help stave off the eviction. And he feels his plan is working.
During a follow up interview on December 26, the priest said that his temple had yet to be forced from its property.
"There must have been enough media pressure that they never followed through," said Ramsamooj. "We found out they never called the sheriff â they were just threatening us⦠They're just trying to intimidate us so we will leave on our own accord, but there is no way this is going to happen."
Voudouris, however, maintains that the eviction just hasn't been settled with the sheriff and that Gourley and Gourley is merely waiting for the finalized plans for Saraswati Mandiram to evacuate the property.
So far, the temple's 10 live-in residents, 16 animals and five large marble religious statues are still housed on the property.
"I'm not going to leave ⦠for someone to desecrate all that we have worshiped for 10 years," said Ramsamooj. "This is a predator lender who has taken us for a ride because we are docile in nature."
Source: IndiaNewEngland.com