The new directors soon found that Asher routinely transferred personnel to his pet projects, despite the objections of company management, according to court documents. Seisint fell behind in an important project as a result, and the company experienced a cash-flow crisis by the summer of 2001. In October of that year, Levan issued a confidential memo to the board that began, "Speaking on behalf of Jack Abdo and myself, we believe there is a pattern of dysfunctionality and deceit here that creates real liability for our founder and the Board of Directors.
"Hank Asher, without the authority of the Board, is hiring and firing, spending corporate funds, committing important resources of the company and intimidating and harassing its officers and directors, including the CEO.
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"Make no mistake, there will be shareholder litigation. The full truth of Hank's background, his activities and behavior at his prior company and this company will be investigated and come to light."
Levan urged, as he had in the past, that the board remove Asher from any role in the company. When the board declined to do so, the two men resigned and sued Asher and the directors soon afterward for mismanaging Atlantic Bancorp's investment. The lawsuit is pending.
Seisint took another blow in August when Asher's Bahamian ghosts rose again. Asher had approached Florida Department of Law Enforcement officials soon after the September 11 attacks and proposed a database system for tracking terrorists. With $1.6 million appropriated by the Florida Legislature, the company entered into a pilot program with FDLE for the Matrix system. The full search power of Matrix won't be in place until multiple states have included their databases. That may take awhile. When FDLE head Daryl McLaughlin learned of Asher's past from a newspaper reporter, he called for an official investigation before further committing to Matrix. The inquiry hasn't been concluded, but McLaughlin calls Asher's removal from Seisint's board "a positive development."
Barnett says she doesn't believe that Asher's history -- whatever the truth may be -- denigrates his accomplishments at Seisint. "He developed law enforcement tools because he was concerned about criminals on the street, about kids being kidnapped," she said during an interview before Asher's removal. "He's developed some of his tools because he saw a problem and he wanted to solve it."
The company, she argues, has grown bigger than its founder. "The story ought to be about this great company in the state of Florida that's doing unique, cutting-edge things, saving lives, saving money, creating products that are beneficial, as opposed to focusing on an individual and what may or may not have happened in his life 20 years ago. Seisint is not about Hank Asher anymore."
As for the rest of the Hank Asher story -- stay tuned. The world hasn't heard the last of Boca Raton's restless cybermagnate.
