Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Plaintiff American Global University School of Medicine (“AGUSM”) for its complaint
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infringement under 15 U.S.C. § 1114 and unfair competition, false designation of origin,
THE PARTIES
2. AGUSM is a medical school organized under the laws of the Country of Belize
and the State of Ohio. Its principal place of business is located at Manatee Drive, San Pedro
Town, Ambergris Caye, Belize, C.A., and its U.S. office is located at 118 Graceland Boulevard,
3. AGUSM owns and operates its website, agusm.org, and owns all of the
6. This is an action for copyright infringement under the Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. §
101 et seq., trademark infringement under 15 U.S.C. § 1114 and unfair competition, false
1125(a).
7. This court has jurisdiction over this matter under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1132(a), 1331 and
1338(a). Venue is proper in this Court under 28 U.S.C. § 1391(b)(2) and/or (3).
BACKGROUND FACTS
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9. AGUSM has been accredited as such with the Government of Belize’s Ministry of
Education. The Government of Belize issued a charter to AGUSM on November 2, 2005, and
AGUSM has also been certified in Belize under the Companies Act (CAP 250, Section 17).
10. AGUSM does not have a campus in Netherlands Antilles. American Global
University (“AGU”), AGUSM’s parent university, does not have authorizing agent who has
leased or taken occupancy of classrooms, offices, dormitories, etc. to facilitate a medical school
11. Malik J. Soudah (“Soudah”) is the president of AGUSM and is one of two
12. Peggy J. Allen (“Allen”) is the Registrar and Director of Admissions and
Administration at AGUSM.
13. Soudah and Allen are the only two persons authorized to sign documentation on
behalf of AGUSM.
14. AGUSM has been issued a listing under the International Medical Education
Directory (“IMED”), an affiliation that is needed for medical schools to prove accreditation.
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website files and codes, and has accessed secure information with the intent to defraud AGUSM,
18. Lewkowski also took control of AGUSM’s e-mail server, which hosted
agusm.org e-mail accounts. Consequently, the AGUSM Administration has been completely
blocked from files and e-mail accounts crucial to the operations of its medical school.
19. When Lewkowski left AGUSM he refused to turn over the content and files of the
AGUSM website.
operations and its administration to contacts contained within the e-mail accounts and files.
21. Lewkowski created a fictitious medical school named “The Caribbean Medical
University” (“CMU”). CMU does not have an accredited program. He also created “dba” named
students who would not notice the “s” missing. Lewkowski used this email ID to confuse
23. The Government of Netherlands Antilles has stated that CMU may operate in
24. Lewkowski used the stolen AGUSM official website/e-mail server codes and files
to create two entirely fictitious websites, www.cmumed.org and www.agumed.org, which divert
traffic from the AGUSM website, and lead current and prospective students to the fraudulent and
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25. These fictitious websites also used stolen AGUSM images to suggest affiliation
26. Several current students notified AGU that tuition and application fees have been
charged against their accounts in the name of AGU, but AGU never authorized these payments.
27. Upon information and belief, Lewkowski is using a Chase Bank merchant account
to collect fees from unsuspecting students’ credit card accounts. The fraudulent fees are then
deposited into Lewkowski’s own personal/business account with Chase Bank. The $1,000.00
fee is ‘non-refundable.’ Many students have been burned and deceived by Lewkowski. This has
caused great damage to AGU’s name and reputation as most students are confused and attribute
28. Upon information and belief, when a student visits the website to submit an
application and pay an application fee, Lewkowski has routed payment to his Chase Bank
29. Upon information and belief, when a student paid his or her tuition online,
Lewkowski routed the payment to his Chase Bank account. Tuition payments range from
$1,000.00 to $7,900.00. Upon information and belief the funds are immediately transferred to
30. Upon information and belief, when a student signed up for an online tuition
payment plan, Lewkowski routed the student’s credit card payments to his Chase Bank account.
31. Upon information and belief, when a student submitted a personal check to pay
for the application fee or other miscellaneous fees (e.g. Request for Transcript), Lewkowski
submitted the check as an ACH Debit through the Chase Bank merchant account to his personal
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32. Prospective students notified AGU that Lewkowski charged a loan application fee
to them for a loan not even available for AGUSM. Each student who completed a loan
application was charged a fee of $200.00. Upon information and belief, the student’s payment of
33. The total amount of tuition and/or fees diverted to Lewkowski’s Chase Bank
34. Lewkowski engaged in similar infringing activities while an employee at the Saint
James School of Medicine (“SJSM”) Chicago office. He was fired on January 17, 2007 for
stealing important files/codes from the SJSM database and using them to create the entirely
35. After dismissal from SJSM, Lewkowski received unemployment benefits. Upon
Lewkowski’s infringing activities and fraudulent transactions. These parties include Chase Bank
Fraud Referral Department, the Columbus, Ohio Police Department – Consumer Fraud Division,
the Illinois Attorney General Consumer Fraud Division, the Prospect Heights, Illinois Police
Department, the Bank of Netherland Antilles, and various Ministries within the Government of
Netherland Antilles.
37. On February 9, 2011, the webhost GoDaddy.com temporarily suspended the two
fictitious websites from operation after receiving a complaint from Soudah and AGUSM.
38. On February 10, 2011, GoDaddy.com contacted Lewkowski to inform him of this
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his e-mail, he stated, “Our school name is American Global University that has been registered
both in Curacao and in U.S. …” He also stated,“I certify under the penalty that there is no
coding, text, photos, or any other intellectual property on our website that was copied from the
claimant.”
stated that no materials have been removed from the AGUSM website and the issue only
concerns the similarity of name, not website materials. He further added, “This is to certify under
penalty of perjury that I have a good faith belief that there are no materials on our website that
41. As of February 19, 2011, the two fictitious websites remain suspended.
Lewkowski;
activities;
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COUNT ONE
COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT
44. The www.agusm.org images, codes and files are original works and copyrightable
45. Plaintiff owns the intellectual property associated with everything related to
46. Plaintiff has the exclusive right to reproduce the www.agusm.org images, codes
and files, and the exclusive right to authorize such reproduction and distribution.
47. Lewkowski copied and reproduced for his own commercial use Plaintiff’s
AGUSM.
50. Upon information and belief, Lewkowski has been and will continue to willfully
infringe upon AGUSM’s intellectual property through his use of the two fictitious websites to
51. Lewkowski’s acts of infringement have caused, and continue to cause irreparable
damage to AGUSM.
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COUNT TWO
TRADEMARK INFRINGEMENT
forth herein.
54. AGUSM’s name, e-mail server and affiliated accounts, website images and
55. Lewkowski has used and is using these trademarks for his own commercial use
56. Lewkowski’s unauthorized use of AGUSM’s trademarks has caused and will
57. Lewkowski’s unauthorized use of AGUSM’s trademarks has deceived and will
58. Lewkowski’s acts of infringement have caused, and continue to cause irreparable
damage to AGUSM.
COUNT THREE
FALSE DESIGNATION OF ORIGIN/UNFAIR COMPETITION
forth herein.
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name, affiliation with AGU, images, and other files/codes falsely represents that such items
62. Lewkowski is not authorized to use AGUSM trademarks and AGUSM cannot
exercise any control over the nature and quality of the fictitious websites.
63. Upon information and belief, Lewkowski’s false designation of origin and
misleading representations have been willful and deliberate, designed specifically to trade upon
the consumer goodwill enjoyed by AGUSM among current and prospective medical students.
64. AGUSM’s goodwill and trusted reputation among current and prospective
medical students is of enormous value, and AGUSM has suffered and will continue to suffer
Respectfully Submitted,
HARRISON ALO, Attorneys at Law
/s/Noure Alo________
Noure Alo (0078288)
HARRISON ALO, Attorneys at Law
Attorney for Plaintiff
4249 Easton Way, Suite 125
Columbus, OH 43219
(614) 428-8472 Ph.
(614) 428-7676 Fax
Noure@harrisonalo.com
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