Daymond John is taking two former business partners to court, with the former FUBU co-founder claiming they cut him out of a lucrative PPE business that exploded during the earliest months of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a lawsuit filed April 3 in the New York Supreme Court, John and his company, The Shark Group, accuse Lisa Kornman Avila, Rashmi Budhram, and their companies, Buko LLC and 5 Time Zones LLC, of withholding “at least tens of millions of dollars” in commissions tied to major state contracts for masks, gowns, and other protective equipment.
The complaint alleges that John’s connections helped secure hundreds of millions of dollars in government purchase orders, but that he never received the share he says he was promised.
According to the filing, John brought Buko into the deals because the company had manufacturing relationships that could source hard-to-find PPE. The parties had reportedly worked together since 2014 under an arrangement in which The Shark Group would introduce clients and receive a percentage of the resulting revenue. John claims that the structure remained in place when state governments urgently sought supplies in spring 2020.
The complaint also says that The Shark Group used John’s name, reputation, and network to open doors with the California Department of General Services, the State of Michigan, New York health officials, and other buyers.
According to the Miami Herald, in April 2020, California initially signed a letter of intent for up to $2.825 billion worth of PPE, including millions of N95 masks. When that transaction stalled, the parties allegedly pivoted to isolation gowns, leading to a $179 million California order for 20 million gowns and a later commitment for another 100 million.
John says Buko ultimately collected more than $146 million from California alone. Under the alleged agreement, The Shark Group was supposed to receive up to 20 percent of revenue and one-third of net profits. In one email cited in the lawsuit, Kornman allegedly wrote, “He ends up with more than he would on our normal deal structure,” referring to John’s expected payout.
The case also revisits the chaotic PPE market of 2020, when states were racing to secure masks, and fraud concerns were widespread. At the time, according to People, John publicly denied allegations that he was involved in price gouging in Florida, saying his role was to help vet suppliers and protect taxpayer money through escrow arrangements.
Contextually, the lawsuit claims that Kornman and Budhram stopped returning calls the same month as John’s statement, and later reorganized their business under new company names to shield assets and avoid paying him. John is seeking damages, punitive damages, attorneys’ fees, and a jury trial.
Kornman and Budhram’s attorney Christopher Frost issued a statement in response to the lawsuit:
“Lisa Kornman Avila and Rashmi Budhram are disappointed to face a lawsuit laden with false and inflammatory allegations. As they will show in their legal response, both women are entrepreneurs with decades of experience sourcing and manufacturing a variety of products including PPE, built on relationships that predate both the COVID-19 pandemic and their association with Daymond John.
“Regarding their California state contract, Mr. John removed himself from the project, requesting no involvement through name, financing, or manufacturing, after his own group faced public allegations of price gouging. Ms. Avila and Ms. Budhram honored that request and passed his commission savings directly to the State of California.
“Now that the media coverage has died down, Mr. John seeks to profiteer by blaming Ms. Avila and Ms. Budhram for following the very request that shielded him from scrutiny. He threatened them for more than five years through two different lawyers before finding one willing to file this weak lawsuit. Ms. Avila and Ms. Budhram have always acted honorably and within their legal obligations, and they look forward to the truth coming out.”
