New owner of "Nightly Business Report" has litigious background

Dru Sefton of Current.org reports that Mykalai Kontilai, whose NBR Worldwide this month purchased the “Nightly Business Report” show last week, has had businesses that have been involved in more than 20 lawsuits in the past decade.

Sefton writes, “What he doesn’t want to discuss are more than 20 lawsuits from 1999 through 2010 filed in San Diego County Superior Court against him or his companies — including five alleging breach of contract.

“‘I’m not going to talk about lawsuits,’ Kontilai told Current. ‘I was told this interview would be about NBR and I’d like to focus on that.’ He added that as an entrepreneur, ‘you do have a failure from time to time and hopefully use the experience to grow and hopefully be more successful.’

“Kontilai later sent Current this statement through a spokesperson: ‘No company for which I have a current executive management or directorship role is involved in any type of litigation. Nearly 100 percent of the past lawsuits that have been referred to are attributed to a one-time business closing almost 10 years ago. The suits were ‘collection-related’ in nature following the company’s closing.’ Current could not independently verify those facts before press time.

“Rick Schneider, president of WPBT, the producing station that sold Nightly Business Report to Kontilai, said both sides completed the customary due diligence process before inking the contract Aug. 13.”

Read more here.