NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. - eTradeWire -- In the extortive 2020 lawsuit filed by Salimpour and his now-disbarred attorney, Thomas Girardi, Salimpour alleged he was an employee of Vivera, owed over $7.5 million in salary, and entitled to 5% ownership in the Company. The lawsuit was filed weeks before Girardi's behavior came to light in a federal fraud indictment. Salimpour, who has never been a Vivera employee, filed it intending to disrupt Vivera's business.

The lawsuit alleged that Salimpour acted as CEO of Vivera between 2017 and 2018, among other blatantly false statements designed to defame Vivera under the protection of so-called "litigation privilege." After being notified by the Los Angeles Police Protective League, the police union representing the LAPD, Vivera discovered Salimpour failed to disclose any such interest in Vivera in the legally mandated Form 700 disclosures required by all those serving in public office or adjacent positions.

"I am disgusted that Pedram tried to defraud Vivera shareholders and employees. What came to light during this experience is that we had other advisors, some actively doing business with Pedram, working against the best interests of Vivera as well. Several former Vivera advisors simultaneously worked with both Pedram and Vivera, even amid the false nature of his statements," stated Paul Edalat, Chairman, Founder, and CEO of Vivera. He further stated, "I will always defend Vivera, its shareholders, and its employees from outside attacks, including fraudulent lawsuits designed to hurt our hardworking team. Our company is on a mission to impact patient lives, and we will not be distracted. It's a shame that lawyers like Girardi can publish lies and get away with it."

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Edalat added, "I want to thank not only our attorneys, specifically Candice Bryner and her team, who so vigorously defended us, but the detectives that contacted us with the information that Pedram had failed to disclose Vivera on his mandatory filings really tipped the scales of justice the right way. We were later contacted by multiple local and federal agencies about Pedram, which was truly shocking."

Girardi, Salimpour's former attorney and a long-time financial supporter of Villaraigosa (https://www.opensecrets.org/search?order=asc&q=thomas+girardi&sort=A&type=donors), still faces federal fraud crime charges. Vivera is pursuing its case against Girardi and looking into any bad acts committed by its former advisors.

Until 2022, Salimpour served as a commissioner for the multi-billion-dollar Los Angeles Fire and Police Pension and was required to disclose all business interests. It later came to light via an exposé in the Los Angeles Daily News (https://www.dailynews.com/2021/11/14/emails-show-la-commissioner-used-influence-to-help-win-3-million-covid-19-contract-union-alleges/) that Salimpour had acted to obtain a City of Los Angeles COVID-19 contract for his own company, PPS Health Bluestone Safe, requiring city employees to pay for testing, and outsourcing the testing to an out-of-state third-party laboratory.

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