The former president of HD Nursing said the company’s recent lawsuit against him was in response to the federal lawsuit he filed against it in June.
Kent Barkouras sued HD Nursing in U.S. District Court in Nevada, accusing the Benton patient safety consulting company of wrongful termination for letting him go on May 8.
Barkouras, who is representing himself in the lawsuit, alleged the company and its CEO Amy Hester of conspiring to “fabricate untrue and defamatory allegations as a reason or excuse to justify terminating him.” He also named board members Carolyn Long and Erin Bush, and John Belew, who has advised the board, as defendants in the lawsuit.
Barkouras said in the suit that he believes the decision to fire him was in retaliation for his requests for more transparency regarding the company and its affiliated companies’ banking records.
After he was fired, his wife, Brandi Barkouras, an independent contractor of HD Nursing, was also terminated from the company on May 8, the lawsuit said.
Brandi Barkouras also is a plaintiff in the lawsuit and is representing herself.
Both Brandi and Kent Barkouras are suing for wrongful termination. Kent Barkouras’ also has accused the defendants of civil conspiracy and defamation.
HD Nursing is represented by attorneys John Doyle Nalley of Lovell Nalley & Nalley of Benton and Brian Brooks of Greenbrier. Nalley didn’t immediately return a call for comment Monday.
HD Nursing sued the Barkourases in July and accused them of representing themselves in connection with the company, Arkansas Business reported in its July 31 Whispers column.
HD Nursing asked for a preliminary injunction to prevent the couple from representing themselves as employees or agents of the company. A hearing on the motion was set for Aug. 7, but the court docket didn’t indicate the status of that hearing as of Monday morning.
The company also is accusing Kent Barkouras of breach of fiduciary duty and fraud.
His attorney, Jay F. Stocker, of Stocker & Lancaster LLP of Irvine, California, said Barkouras categorically denies the allegations in that complaint.
Barkouras was an angel investor for HD Nursing almost 10 years ago and then was added as a senior executive about three years ago “to assist the company with certain challenges it was experiencing,” Stocker said in an email to Arkansas Business. “Despite the global COVID pandemic, revenue nearly doubled during that time period.”
Barkouras also co-founded a subsidiary of HD Nursing named Health Sense Ai Inc., Stocker said.
And as HD Nursing’s chairman, Barkouras “successfully completed two major acquisitions,” he said. He also founded a wholly owned medical device company called Prevention Plus Performance Products “that successfully released its first FDA registered product called the Performance Mat in March 2023,” Stocker said.
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