Theos-Talk Archives (January 1998 Message tt00212)

At 10:21 AM 1/19/1998 EST, Lmhem111 wrote:
>In a message dated 98-01-18 21:12:34 EST, you write:
>
><< It was a follow up to a litigation that went on for 18 years between
>
> (1) the old Krishnamurti Trusts (and Trustees) vs
>
> (2) Krishnamurti and the K Foundation of America and its Trustees.
>  >>
>
>At the core, this sounds like it has something to do with the split between
>Rajagopal and Krishnamurti the ramifications of which entered the personal
>level.

The core of the problem is very simple -- Large sums of money and very
valuable real estate holdings around the world. Nothing to do with K's
philosophy or what K was doing. Here is a summary out of the top of my head.

All the money and property were donated by a lot of people for a single
purpose. To Krishnamurti to travel, speak, teach and publish. They were
held by the tax exempt non profit trusts created for this purpose. None
belonged to any of the trustees.

When Krishnamurti wanted to know what is going on in the trusts, he was not
permitted access by the Trustees of which Rajagopal was the
President/Chairman. BTW one of the Trustees on the trusts is currently on
the BOD of TSA.

Then a situation arose in the US and India which effectively prevented
Krishnamurti from using the buildings donated for his work.

When all else failed, K formed a new charitable trust - Krishnamurti
Foundation of America. KFA along with California Attorney General sued the
Trustees of K trusts and Trusts themselves to recover the property from the
old trusts. K was not a plaintiff in this suit. The Attorney General became
a co-plaintiff because of the large sums of money and very valuable
world-wide holding of real estate belonging to CA charitable tax exempt
trusts.

The litigation involved several lawsuits and lasted 18 years and was
finally settled only after K died. One interesting law suit involved
recovering the possession of a large building and land donated to K. It is
across the river from Adyar TS HQ and it was where first time I attended
K's lecture in 1965. He was subsequently prevented from staying there and
lecture. A new K Trust was formed in India and it sued for the recovery of
the building so that K can continue to stay and lecture there. The K Trusts
in the US which were led by Rajagopal were defendants and the litigation
dragged on. The trustees of this new Trust included one who later became
President of India, another who later became the Attorney General of India
and two were retired Chief Justices of the Madras High court. Guess who was
the secretary of the Trust? Mrs. Radha Burnier, presently the International
President of TS (Adyar).

The sad thing about the whole litigation is that may be up to $500,000
dollars was wasted on high priced attorneys. It was money that was donated
by good hearted folks trying to help K spread his message. Instead money
ended up in the pockets of attorneys.

I hope this gives an overview of the litigation.

MKR