Lawsuit alleges years of unauthorized spending, payroll payments and corporate funds benefiting family members and Holy Matcha<\/p>\n
HEBER\u2014\u00a0A $4.5 million lawsuit filed in Imperial County Superior Court has opened a window into an unusually tangled dispute involving one of the Imperial Valley’s prominent agricultural families, multiple companies, alleged unauthorized corporate expenditures and a San Diego matcha caf\u00e9 founded by an Imperial Valley native.<\/p>\n
At the center of the lawsuit is\u00a0Leticia Ridaura, who plaintiffs allege used her positions within the Scaroni family’s network of agricultural and logistics companies to divert millions of dollars for personal and family-related expenses.<\/p>\n
Among the alleged beneficiaries was\u00a0Holy Matcha, a San Diego caf\u00e9 founded by Ridaura’s daughter, Geraldine Ridaura.<\/p>\n
The plaintiffs \u2014 seven companies affiliated with the Scaroni family \u2014 allege that more than\u00a0$4.5 million in company money was improperly spent or transferred\u00a0over a period spanning more than two decades. The allegations have not been proven in court.<\/p>\n
Geraldine Ridaura has denied wrongdoing and has characterized the lawsuit as retaliatory. She has said Holy Matcha does not belong in the dispute and intends to vigorously defend itself.<\/p>\n
But the lawsuit raises questions about the financial relationships among the Ridaura family, the Scaroni companies and a San Diego business that grew from a small matcha concept into a recognizable Southern California brand.<\/p>\n
The dispute involves far more than a family-owned farm.<\/p>\n
The\u00a0Scaroni Family of Companies, headquartered in Heber, has been involved in Imperial Valley agriculture since 1983. The family business has developed into a network of companies involved in farming, harvesting, packing, agricultural labor, transportation, logistics and technology.<\/p>\n
The company’s own historical descriptions have listed\u00a0Valley Harvesting & Packing, Fresh Harvest, SMD Logistics, Harvest Tek de Mexico, AgData Global and AlphaSite Logistics\u00a0among its affiliated businesses.<\/p>\n
The company’s agricultural reach extends beyond Imperial County into other parts of California, Arizona, Texas, Florida and Mexico.<\/p>\n
In a 2021 agricultural labor forum biography, founder\u00a0Steve Scaroni\u00a0described the family operation as having evolved from its original harvest and packing company into a business providing H-2A and domestic labor, harvesting, logistics and farming operations in the United States and Mexico.<\/p>\n
That same biography said the family’s customer service and production operations touched approximately\u00a025% of every salad eaten in America\u00a0and described the company as the nation’s largest full-service H-2A user and provider.<\/p>\n
The company’s current public descriptions are somewhat more conservative, stating that its harvesting and logistics operations handle approximately\u00a020% of every salad eaten in the United States\u00a0and identifying the company as a major West Coast H-2A provider.<\/p>\n
Among the companies connected to the Scaroni organization is\u00a0Fresh Harvest Inc., which provides agricultural labor, staffing and harvesting services and specializes in H-2A workers.<\/p>\n
Fresh Harvest describes itself as a labor provider to the agriculture industry throughout the western United States.<\/p>\n
Another company,\u00a0SMD Logistics Inc., provides transportation and logistics services. Federal court records have described Fresh Harvest and SMD Logistics as closely related sister corporations, with SMD managing H-2A truck drivers for Fresh Harvest, including dispatching and driving routes.<\/p>\n
Corporate records also show the Scaroni family and Ridaura names appearing in the management history of SMD Logistics and Fresh Harvest.<\/p>\n
SMD Logistics’ corporate records list Steve Scaroni as a principal, while historical filings identify other members of the Scaroni family and Leticia Ridaura among the company’s officers or directors.<\/p>\n
Fresh Harvest’s corporate history similarly lists members of the Scaroni family and Leticia Ridaura among its corporate officers or directors. That corporate overlap is significant to understanding the current lawsuit.<\/p>\n
The plaintiffs contend Ridaura was not simply an outside employee who happened to have access to company accounts. They allege she occupied positions of trust within the companies and used that access to direct corporate resources toward herself and members of her family.<\/p>\n
According to the first amended complaint, the alleged financial activity included credit-card charges, checks, cash withdrawals, reimbursements and other expenditures that plaintiffs characterize as personal or unauthorized.<\/p>\n
The complaint alleges approximately:<\/p>\n
$1.5 million\u00a0in personal American Express charges paid by company funds;$1.3 million\u00a0in checks allegedly written to Ridaura’s personal accounts;more than\u00a0$500,000\u00a0in additional personal credit-card payments;hundreds of thousands of dollars in alleged cash withdrawals and reimbursements; andpayments for expenses such as tuition, utilities and property taxes.<\/p>\n
Together, plaintiffs say the alleged losses exceed\u00a0$4.5 million.<\/p>\n
The lawsuit also alleges that Geraldine Ridaura received approximately\u00a0$363,975\u00a0in payroll payments from AgData Global beginning around 2013 and continuing for more than a decade, despite plaintiffs’ contention that she did not perform services for the company. Again, these are allegations contained in the lawsuit, not findings by a judge or jury.<\/p>\n
Geraldine Ridaura eventually became the founder of Holy Matcha, a brightly branded San Diego caf\u00e9 specializing in matcha drinks and desserts.<\/p>\n
The business opened its first location in San Diego’s North Park neighborhood in 2017 and developed a strong social-media presence.<\/p>\n
But according to the lawsuit, Holy Matcha was not financially isolated from the Imperial Valley family businesses.<\/p>\n
The complaint alleges that corporate credit cards belonging to Scaroni-affiliated companies were used to pay expenses associated with Holy Matcha.<\/p>\n
Among the alleged expenditures were\u00a0uniforms and utility bills, as well as a\u00a0property-tax payment\u00a0for a Holy Matcha-related property using a Valley Harvesting corporate American Express card.<\/p>\n
The plaintiffs also allege that Geraldine Ridaura benefited from payments made through the broader corporate network.<\/p>\n
The lawsuit does not claim that the entire $4.5 million allegedly diverted from the Scaroni companies went to Holy Matcha.<\/p>\n
Rather, the plaintiffs are alleging that Holy Matcha and Geraldine Ridaura received some benefits from what they characterize as a much larger pattern of unauthorized spending.<\/p>\n
The lawsuit is particularly notable because of the longstanding relationship between the Ridaura and Scaroni families.<\/p>\n
Public corporate records show Leticia Ridaura’s historical involvement in several Scaroni-affiliated companies. The plaintiffs now allege that this access enabled her to move company money toward personal and family interests.<\/p>\n
Geraldine Ridaura has offered a dramatically different account.<\/p>\n
According to her response to the allegations, Holy Matcha was independently built and has no legitimate place in the Scaroni dispute. She has characterized the litigation as an attempt to retaliate against her mother and target her family.<\/p>\n
That creates a fundamental question for the court: Were payments and benefits received by the Ridaura family legitimate compensation and business transactions \u2014 or were they corporate assets improperly diverted for personal use?<\/p>\n
The answer will depend upon financial records, corporate authorizations, employment agreements, accounting records and other evidence presented during the litigation.<\/p>\n
The family’s operations expanded into agricultural labor, harvesting, logistics and Mexico-based farming.<\/p>\n
The family’s business has remained deeply connected to the Imperial Valley.<\/p>\n
Among the central issues will be who authorized disputed expenditures, whether money spent on behalf of family members was properly recorded and approved, whether Geraldine Ridaura and Holy Matcha knew the source of the money allegedly used for their benefit, and whether the plaintiffs can prove the legal claims they have brought.<\/p>\n
The plaintiffs are seeking at least\u00a0$4.5 million, along with additional damages, restitution, punitive damages, attorney’s fees and other relief.<\/p>\n
Several causes of action are asserted against Holy Matcha and Geraldine Ridaura, including conversion, unjust enrichment, money had and received, aiding and abetting, and civil conspiracy.<\/p>\n
No judgment has been entered against Holy Matcha, Geraldine Ridaura or Leticia Ridaura. The allegations remain allegations unless and until established in court.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lawsuit alleges years of unauthorized spending, payroll payments and corporate funds benefiting family members and Holy Matcha HEBER\u2014\u00a0A…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":428439,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[170526,170523,170527,170524,74,76,170528,75,170525],"class_list":["post-428438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-geraldine-ridaura","tag-holy-matcha","tag-imperial-county-superior-court","tag-leticia-ridaura","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-matcha-caf","tag-san-diego-news","tag-steve-scaroni"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=428438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428438\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/428439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=428438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=428438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=428438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}