Pair of Frisco Entrepreneurs Ordered to pay $400M

Frisco entrepreneurs Gopala Krishnan and Sakthivel Gounder were ordered to pay $400 million in damages to a Georgetown-based business after being found liable for breach of contract and fraud by a Williamson County jury.

The pair concocted promotional materials for a luxury development called “The District” that they claimed was going to be built around the San Gabriel River. Krishnan and Gounder were sold the land by the company that sued them, Energy Commissioning Incorporated, owned by Marshall Hussain.

Energy Commissioning was subsequently hired by the pair for $21 million to build necessary infrastructure for a 400-acre, luxury waterfront development that was never meant to actually materialize, according to the Dallas Morning News, who cited Dripping Springs-based attorney Tanner Neidhardt.

Krishnan and Gounder only made symbolic payments to Energy Commissioning, according to the outlet, and Neidhart said they swindled Hussain for so much money that he lost his home. Part of the scheme involved selling Energy Commissioning on a small plan, while simultaneously pitching European bankers on a plan that was much larger. Puzzlingly, alleged marketing materials for the larger plan spoke of enticing “high-ranking Army commanders” based nearby in Austin, in addition to civilians. The pair never obtained the $5 billion bond they were gunning for.

Previously, Krishnan and Gounder were the targets of a 2023 SEC temporary restraining order and asset freeze to halt an alleged Ponzi scheme. The pair were ordered to pay back a small fraction of the $130 million they allegedly defrauded from the Dallas-Fort Worth Indian American community, $5.6 million total, with Krishnan doing the heavy lifting at $4.3 million.

The Williamson County jury award is much larger: upwards of $400 million, including $300 million in exemplary damages as a misconduct punishment. The number is several orders of magnitude greater than the scheme due to a key jury finding; The defendants conned the plaintiff into signing documents concerning the property.

— Hunter Cooke