AUSTIN, Texas (Legal Newsline) - Ray Chester, an Austin attorney who is a defendant in a lawsuit involving the Mitte Foundation, has donated money to the re-election campaign of the judge in the case and was listed on her website as a supporter, according to public records.
Chester is a defendant in a lawsuit filed in Travis County District Court alleging a complex civil conspiracy to swindle assets from two real estate partnerships.
In 2020, Chester donated $263.47 to the campaign of the judge in the case, Jan Soifer, according to nonprofit organization Transparency USA. In 2016, Soifer’s campaign listed Chester as one of her supporters.
The lawsuit is the latest in a serious of legal troubles related to the Mitte Foundation.
In 2019, the foundation's former president, Dilum Chandrasoma, was charged with causing bodily harm to a family member. According to the police report, Chandrasoma was confronted by his son, Shehan, about talking to other women on his mobile phone.
Chandrasoma, described as “heavily intoxicated,” allegedly began hitting the son. His wife allegedly stepped in between them and fell to the floor. Chandrasoma then began “hitting her on the side of the head,” the report said.
When his wife stood up, Chandrasoma allegedly pushed her back to the floor then went into the bedroom and broke off “a large baseball-sized post from their bed,” but did not strike his wife with it, the report said.
The police officer who responded observed an abrasion on the wife’s forearm.
In September, the son, Shehan, was himself arrested on a misdemeanor reckless driving charge in an Austin police crackdown of a “car club” operation, KVUE reported. Shehan Chandrasoma, 17, was one of 22 people arrested by Austin police at a parking lot off North Interstate Highway 35 in northeast Austin near the AMC theater Sept. 12, KVUE said.
There has been significant "dangerous and criminal activity" this summer in the parking lot, the police department said in a news release.
In 2003, there were allegations against founder Roy Mitte by Financial Industries Corp. – a company he founded – that he had donated $1 million from the company to the foundation without the board’s permission, the Austin Business Journal reported. Roy Mitte had been fired as chairman of the company in October 2002. Those and other allegations were ultimately settled out of court.