Gary L. Stewart

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Gary L. Stewart was the former Imperator and President of the Board of AMORC from 1987 to 1990. He founded the Confraternity of the Rose Cross (CR+C), in 1996. He is also the Knight Commander of the OMCE and the Sovereign Grand Master of the British Martinist Order.

1 Legal Issues
2 See also
- 2.1 Other AMORC Imperators
3 External links

[edit] Legal Issues

Stewart was removed from his position of President of the Board of AMORC by a majority vote of the newly expanded Board of Directors in 1990 and sued in California Superior Court with allegations of embezzlement (Case #1-90-CV-700028, Rosicrucian Order -Vs-Stewart Et Al - also charged in that suit were Silicon Valley Bank, Banc Agricol i Comercial, and others. The allegations of embezzlement involved the accusation of acquiring a five million dollar line of Credit on behalf of AMORC with Silicon Valley Bank and transferring three million dollars to Banc Agricol in Andorra without proper board approval. Stewart maintains that the funds were transferred from one AMORC account to another for the purpose of seeding the formation of a Spanish Grand Lodge in Spain. The majority of the board of directors maintained that the establishment of a line of credit and the subsequent transfer of funds was done without their knowledge. An additional five hundred thousand dollar transfer Stewart contended was intended for the payment of fees and the seeding of other AMORC related programs was also disputed in the suit.

Stewart responded by claiming all banking transactions were done appropriately and all paperwork including the Corporate Resolution to Borrow were duly signed by the appropriate Board Officers. Stewart's claim was supported by Silicon Valley Bank. Additionally, Stewart filed a cross-complaint which included allegations of financial malfeasance and embezzlement of several other Board Directors. In December, 1991 Stewart filed a Request for Dismissal of his entire cross-complaint with prejudice (meaning he cannot file such a claim again) and it was officially dismissed on January 7, 1992.

In 1993, after the Insurance Company of North America filed a Motion for Leave to File a Complaint in Intervention and to Continue Trial alleging Insurance Fraud on the part of AMORC resulting from a filed claim in October, 1990 related to this case, AMORC actively sought to settle their suit against all parties filed in their suit and contacted Stewart on May 27, 1993. Their suit against Stewart was settled out of court and it was dismissed with prejudice on August 10, 1993.

The lawsuits against Stewart and AMORC were settled out of court and no parties involved in the suit and cross-complaint were ever charged or convicted of any crimes. There were no court rulings involved with this suit and whereas Stewart never contested the right of the AMORC Board to remove him from his position as President of the Board of Directors by majority vote, the issue regarding whether or not he could be legally removed from the Office of Imperator was never addressed -- neither by the Courts nor the internal AMORC policies as they were defined by the Constitution and Bylaws that governed the organization at that time.

Stewart was also sued in 1992 by Maynard Law Offices for breach of contract (Case #1-92-CV-720163, Maynard Law Offices -Vs-Stewart) as Stewart was unable to pay his legal fees. The suit was settled in Arbitration that same year.