A Flathead County jury has ordered Laron D. Shannon to pay $1.7 million after he said he was a decorated Marine Corps officer in order to convince a well-known Whitefish businessman to invest in his business.
Don Kaltschmidt filed a lawsuit against Shannon, of Kalispell, in 2014 after learning that the man had lied about his military service and was mismanaging his investment in a North Dakota-based oil and gas drilling rig-cleaning business. On April 30, following a two-day trial in Flathead County District Court before Judge Robert Allison, the jury sided with Kaltschmidt, owner of the Don “K” Whitefish car dealership.
Kaltschmidt was awarded $224,000 for actual damages — just shy of the $250,000 he invested in Oilfield Warriors back in 2014 — and $1.5 million for punitive damages. Kaltschmidt said it is unlikely he’ll ever see a penny of the money, but a payout was never the purpose of the lawsuit.
“When someone infiltrates this community of veterans, it’s a violation of our code… We earned the right to be called Marines, and when someone who has not earned that right (calls themselves a Marine), you feel violated,” he said. “This lawsuit was not about me. It was about making sure Shannon didn’t do this again.”
“This sort of behavior will not be tolerated in Flathead County,” Kaltschmidt added.
According to Kaltschmidt, Shannon attended the Virginia Military Institute and was an officer candidate but never actually served in the Marines.
Shannon met Kaltschmidt in 2014 and convinced the Whitefish business owner to invest in his oilfield rig-cleaning company. Kaltschmidt gave him $250,000 for a quarter of the company. The ownership increased to 30 percent soon after. In the spring of 2014, Kaltschmidt learned that Shannon had spent $175,000 in two months but had not actually cleaned anything. Later on, Kaltschmidt learned that Shannon had formed two other oilfield companies and that he had lied about his service. Kaltschmidt quickly moved to freeze the company’s assets.
In the lawsuit, Kaltschmidt accused Shannon of fraud, breach of contract and negligent misrepresentation.