Dissident shareholders of Native corporation Leisnoi, Inc. take a long-standing legal battle into the boardroom this month with a petition campaign to oust the current corporate leadership.

The campaign needs 10 percent of shareholders to sign a petition in order to call a special meeting to elect a new board of directors.

Leaders of the campaign cited the board’s handling of an internal lawsuit as the main reason for the campaign. In a letter informing current board members of the petition campaign earlier this month, Leisnoi shareholder Edward Ward wrote:

“An expanding number of shareholders are very displeased and concerned over what they believe was a premature action by a select group of board members to seize the bank accounts of certain shareholders as this matter is currently under appeal to the Alaska Supreme Court.”

The bank seizures settle more than $91,000 in attorney’s fees that 12 Leisnoi shareholders had to pay in a case they brought and lost against three Leisnoi board members. The case was decided last September by the Third District State Superior Court in Anchorage, and is currently under appeal in the Alaska State Supreme Court.

In his letter to directors, Ward questioned the morality of taking the court-approved legal fees from elderly shareholders and also expressed sympathy with some of the concerns of the plaintiffs.

The suit accused directors of not holding regular annual meetings or providing appropriate financial documents to shareholders. It pitted 12 shareholders led by shareholder Robert Erickson against three individuals on the board of directors: Kane Wolf, Carole Pagano and Frank Grant. Wolf and Pagano still sit on the Leisnoi board.

Superior Justice Sen K. Tan dismissed all of the charges except the board’s failure to provide audited financial statements. Regarding the last charge, Tan ordered the board of directors to address the issue.

In the findings of facts Tan justified a few lapses in the corporation’s financial documentation due to the corporation’s financial struggles. The document recorded the corporation’s income dried up in 1998 when a different lawsuit prevented logging on corporate lands.

Speaking from Leisnoi’s office in Mesa, Ariz., Carole Pagano, who serves as the corporation’s secretary and treasurer, responded to news of the recall campaign by pointing out the board’s opponents have not yet received the petitions calling for a special meeting.

Current board members are Carole Pagano, Kane Wolf, Frank Pagano and new members Jay Baldwin and Quint Wolf.

Leisnoi’s current internal struggle should not be confused with the much older struggle between Leisnoi and rancher Omar Stratman. Stratman challenged Lesnois’s incorporation under the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. The Stratman case ended definitively in Lesnoi’s favor this summer, removing lingering doubts regarding Leisnoi’s title to more than 115,000 acres, mostly on Woody Island, Long Island and along Kodiak’s road system.

Mirror writer Sam Friedman can be reached via e-mail at sfriedman@kodiakdailymirror.com.