| 7 suits target philanthropist |
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By: By Lisa Marchesoni - July 18, 2007 - 2:06 PM
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About $20 million is sought through lawsuits against Murfreesboro investor and philanthropist Robert W. McLean, his accountant, Mark S. Riddle and his investment company.
McLean, 59, of Charleston Court is the target of seven lawsuits claiming he failed to pay investors who held personal promissory notes. The largest lawsuit seeks $8.9 million in payments for Ron Vannatta, Bette R. and Martha Vannatta, all of Shelbyville, Melissa Vannatta Keck of Boston and the First Christian Church Scholarship Fund in Shelbyville.
Several of the lawsuits ask for liens on his property or attachments for his property, including homes.
Another investor with McLean is Ryan Shepard Church, who served in an apprentice position to McLean at MTSU several years ago.
In his lawsuit filed by attorney Ken Burger, Church stated McLean represented he had a net worth and controlled about $50 million in investment assets and personally received about 18 to 20 percent from the investments.
Before a packed courtroom Wednesday, Circuit Court Judge Mark Rogers denied a motion to place McLean’s assets into a receivership.
McLean did not attend the hearing. Court records showed McLean was hospitalized at Middle Tennessee Mental Health Institute in Nashville.
He committed $1 million to MTSU last year for a baseball field and academic programs. He donated funds for 54 Steinway pianos to the School of Music, whose building was later renamed the Robert W. McLean School of Music in his honor.
MTSU spokesman Tom Tozer said he didn’t know how the lawsuits would affect the university.
“He has been a loyal supporter of MTSU by donating to the university,” Tozer said. “Beyond that, pledging and all that we’re not allowed to respond to that.”
Attorney Frank Fly represents former MTSU star quarterback Jonathan Quinn who played with the Jacksonville Jaguars, the Kansas City Chiefs and the Chicago Bears. Quinn seeks $713,000 he invested with McLean’s company plus interest.
“A lot of people feel he betrayed their trust and they’re looking for answers,” Fly said. “It’s having a communitywide impact.”
Based on the packed courtroom, Fly believes more lawsuits will be filed from people who invested with McLean.
Church’s lawsuit stated McLean was financially sound and would back Church’s $500,000 investment with a personal promissory note. Church spoke with McLean July 12.
“In that conversation, defendant (McLean) did not deny his financial predicament but would offer no assurances or representations to the plaintiff (Church) that his funds were secure or that they would be repaid,” the lawsuit stated.
Church reported McLean told him he transferred the $500,000 investment to an out-of-state account that he declined to identity. Church seeks $1.5 million in damages.
The Vannatta suit alleges "McLean is not licensed to offer investment securities in Tennessee." An online search on the State of Tennessee's Commerce and Insurance Web site Wednesday produced no listing for McLean.
Others who filed lawsuits and the amount they seek from McLean include:
• Cindi Johnson of North Carolina who seeks $500,000 from a loan.
• Suzanne Mielke of North Carolina who asks $500,000 from a loan.
• Charles E. Coffey of Knox County, Tennessee, who requests repayment for a $4 million loan.
• The estate of Byron B. Kerr Jr., who requests $1.5 million to pay federal taxes. All three promissory notes promised 8 percent interest.
Betsy Kerr Hay, the executor of her uncle Byron Kerr’s estate, sent a letter in April to McLean requesting the payment.
“Thank you for your friendship and business relationship with Uncle BB,” Hay wrote. “I know he prized it greatly.”
The cases are pending in Circuit and Chancery courts.
In 2004, McLean made a sizeable donation to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum which enabled it to purchase ''Mother Maybelle'' Carter's 1928 Gibson guitar, considered one of the most historically significant instruments in American popular music.
The Gibson L-5 had been on loan to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, but its owner decided to list it for sale. Museum officials had feared that the instrument, which Maybelle Carter played in nearly every recording and performance of her long career, would be snapped up by a private collector and hidden from public view before they could raise the money to reclaim it. It is now on permanent display in the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.
In addition, McLean has donated to the Country Music Hall of Fame Bill Monroe's 1923 Gibson Loar F-5 Mandolin. This was the instrument on which Monroe created the genre of bluegrass music and played for some 50 years.
Staff writer Michelle Willard contributed to the story.
EDITOR'S NOTE---Bob McLean is among the investors in Murfreesboro Post Publishing LLC which publishes The Murfreesboro Post
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