Tycoon calls innocence statements admissible
Pakistani billionaire says his words are legal and must be considered
Malik Riaz Hussain, the Pakistani billionaire whose family operated the Wilton limousine service involved in the 2018 limo crash in Schoharie that killed 20 people, says his statements of innocence in the civil lawsuits brought against him in state court by families of the victims are entirely legal and must be considered as he seeks to have the cases against him dismissed.
Hussain is the older brother of Shahed Hussain, the owner of Prestige Limousine, which rented out a 30-foot stretch Ford Excursion limo to a group of 17
friends from the Amsterdam area on Oct. 6, 2018.
On its way to Cooperstown, the Excursion’s brakes appeared to fail as the limo descended a steep hill on Route 30 just outside the village of Schoharie. The limo sailed into the parking lot of the Apple Barrel Country Store at the intersection with Route 30A traveling at an estimated 100 mph, killing two bystanders and everyone inside the limo, including the driver, making it the worst highway disaster in more than a decade.
Nauman Hussain, the son of Shahed Hussain, was operating the business for his father at the time of the crash. He is the only person facing criminal charges in the case and has been charged with 20 counts each of manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide.
Although there is no known direct evidence that Malik Riaz Hussain had bankrolled the limo operation or known about its existence, he has been named a defendant in the civil lawsuits filed in state court by the families of the victims, along with his brother and nephew. At least up until 2017 he was the legal owner of the Wilton motel that Shahed Hussain and his late wife purchased in 2006. The motel, the Crest Inn Suites, was shut down by the Department of Health in the fall of 2019 for safety violations.
The civil lawsuits were filed in various counties where the victims lived but have been consolidated in state Supreme Court in Albany so that discovery of the evidence and other filings can be conducted under one consolidated case until trial. Justice Denise Hartman is overseeing the consolidated discovery portion of the cases.
Malik Riaz Hussain has sought to have the cases against him dismissed, arguing in an affirmation, a legal statement, that he never knew about the existence of the limo service and actually handed over the ownership of the motel to Nauman Hussain and his brother Shayher in 2017, a year before the crash. Lawyers for the Pakistani tycoon have argued that Malik Riaz Hussain failed to file the appropriate paperwork with the Saratoga County clerk’s office transferring ownership of the property.
Lawyers for families of the victims countered that the affirmation was not legally acceptable since it was not a notarized affidavit. In a Dec. 8 reply, lawyers for Malik Riaz Hussain note that a 2015 change to the court rules allows for people living outside the U.S. to file a personal statement that they “affirm to be true under penalty of perjury.”
Malik Riaz Hussain’s attorneys with Bracewell LLP in New York City also note that the plaintiff ’s suits try to make the case that Malik Riaz Hussain must have known about the limo business if he owned the motel since the limo business shared the same address. But there has never been a direct connection shown between the two businesses in any documents associated with the case or even in investigations by the National Transportation Safety Board and others.
“Surely if Malik Riaz Hussain’s name appeared anywhere in those materials, plaintiffs would have trumpeted it,” Paul Shechtman, Malik Riaz Hussain’s attorney wrote in the Dec. 8 reply. A hearing on the issue is scheduled for next week.
Shechtman continued: “Malik Riaz Hussain, it appears, has the misfortune of having relatives, Shahed and Nauman Hussain, who ran a limousine company poorly. But he is not his relatives’ keeper.”