Plastics maker's family feud in court
The Fortunato family, minority owners of Pittsburgh Plastics Manufacturing Inc., claim in a lawsuit that the controlling family-owners, the Zonas, have looted the company and frozen out the Fortunatos since before founder James Zona died in late 2009.
The lawsuit, filed on Thursday in federal court in Pittsburgh, seeks a trial to determine compensatory and punitive damages due the Fortunatos. Total damage claims were not supplied.
The Fortunatos also ask the court to name a receiver to run the Butler-based company if the Zonas do not honor an earlier option agreement to let the Fortunatos buy enough shares to control two-thirds of the company.
The lawsuit alleges James Zona; Susan Zona, his wife and company president; and Angela Zona Carr, their daughter and vice president,"hijacked control of PPM, raided its assets, and stopped making regular distributions of dividends to the Fortunatos."
"If permitted, the Zonas' continued bleeding of PPM while profits dwindle will leave PPM insolvent and/or bankrupt," stated the complaint.
Neither Susan Zona nor Angela Zona Carr could be reached for comment.
Pittsburgh Plastics, founded by James Zona in 1985, makes plastic products for business and consumer markets, including liquid-gel insoles sold to Dr. Scholl's. Sales peaked at $3.45 million in 2005.
Plaintiff Alvin Fortunato leased Zona space in Bellevue that year and over time became involved in the company, including acquiring a 25 percent stake. The complaint also states Zona agreed to cap his salary at $30,000, assure no executive would divert assets for "bloated salaries," pay the Fortunato family company dividends and give them a significant say in running the business.
After Zona developed a brain tumor in 2008, he tried to sell the business to Fortunato and his wife, Arlene, who refused, and the business partners' relationship deteriorated, said the complaint. Zona paid himself $230,151 in 2009 and hid a nearly half-million-dollar company loan from the Fortunatos, the lawsuit stated. He died that October.
When widow Susan Zona took the reins, she was paid a salary of $352,181 and a bonus of $488,663 in 2010, according to the lawsuit. Her daughter received a salary of $104,546 last year. The payments represented more than Pittsburgh Plastics' profits that year.
The lawsuit also claims the Zonas not only withheld from the Fortunatos financial documents they had requested but forged a document purporting to cancel the Fortunatos' option to buy a majority stake in the company.
