As locals rallied to save a Wichita cafe, legal tensions were brewing between its owners

Last week, diners flooded into Le Monde — the Mediterranean cafe that has been operating at 602 N. West St. since 1994 — after its owner posted on Facebook that the restaurant was doing its best to keep its doors open.

The post became the topic of local TV news stories , and customers showed up in droves to support the longtime business.

Meanwhile, customers were unaware of the drama that was simmering behind the scenes.

One of the owners of the restaurant — the late owner’s widow, Lilas Krichati — is being sued by the restaurant’s other owner and longtime manager, Ghassan “Gus” Hajeh. Lilas Krichati was the owner featured on the television reports about the restaurant’s struggles.

Hajeh’s lawyers said they had no comment except to say that the complaint, filed in Sedgwick County District Court on Aug. 21, speaks for itself. In it, Hajeh — who still works at the restaurant with Lilas Krichati — says that he signed a deal with the restaurant’s late owner, Mohamad Krichati, that made him a 50% partner and that, since his death, Krichati’s widow has been misappropriating restaurant money to pay for personal expenses, including a new roof for her house and catering for her California wedding to her new spouse.

Hajeh is suing for breach of fiduciary duty, breach of contract and fraud and wants a court order preventing Lilas Krichati and the other defendants named in the lawsuit, J&K Inc. and Kasem MD PC, from causing “interference or disruption” with the restaurant’s normal operations. He is also asking for damages in excess of $75,000.

Lilas Krichati’s lawyer, Wichita attorney Todd Tedesco, however, says that he thinks the matter is a big misunderstanding and that the allegations contained in Hajeh’s complaint may be a result of his overzealous lawyers mischaracterizing events.

Tedesco said he’s hopeful that the parties can still work the matter out between them.

“We believe that this, at its core, really amounts to a misunderstanding between the partners,” he said.

Out-of-state owner

Local restaurateurs Youssef Youssef ( Sesame Mediterranean Kitchen ) and Kassem Yassine ( Delanos Diner ) opened Le Monde in April 1994. Mohamad Krichati, a former engineer at Cessna Aircraft, bought the restaurant the following year and even briefly opened a Le Monde on Rock Road in 2010. In 1997, Mohamad Krichati hired his then brother-in-law, Hajeh — who at the time was married to Krichati’s sister — to work for him.

Around 2012, Mohamad Krichati relocated to San Diego and left the daily operation of the restaurant in Hajeh’s hands. Hajeh’s face is the one most Wichitans associate with the cafe, partly because he spoke on behalf of Le Monde in 2016, when customers rallied to support the restaurant after a customer called for people to boycott it because it was Muslim-owned.

But Mohamad Krichati died in a car accident in San Diego in May 2017. According to Hajeh’s complaint, Lilas Krichati “appears to have inherited the business and or the real estate business from him and has since been actively involved in every facet of the business.”

Hajeh says in the lawsuit that he paid Mohamad Krichati $50,000 in 2008 to purchase 25% of J&K Inc., the business entity that owns Le Monde. Under the terms of the agreement, Krichati maintained ownership of the building where the restaurant is located, charged rent, and required Hajeh to work a minimum of 50 hours a week as the manager at a rate of $12 per hour, according to the lawsuit. The profit of the restaurant was to be split between the owners with Hajeh getting 25%.

Then in January 2015, according to Hajeh’s complaint, the partners signed an amendment that upped Hajeh’s share to 50% of the company’s profits and 50% of the rent income.

But ever since Mohamad Krichati’s death, Hajeh alleges, he’s never been able to get a full accounting of the company’s finances and has never been able to collect on his share of the profits “despite repeated requests,” the lawsuit says.

Hajeh further alleges in the lawsuit that, after hiring an accountant this year to review books, he discovered that Lilas Krichati had been using restaurant money for pricey personal expenses, including insurance on a rental house in Andover, charges for her wedding and prenuptial legal fees and for her home mortgage.

She also, according to the complaint, used company money from a COVID relief loan to pay for a roof replacement on her home and used company funds to donate $13,710 to the Islamic Society of Corona Norco, California. After the donation was made, the society’s property and catering was used for her wedding, the lawsuit says. It also accuses her of making several false reports, including “highly inflated” rent amounts, to the IRS to hide earnings that were owed to Hajeh.

According to the complaint, Hajeh’s accountant “uncovered numerous transactions that appear to be outright theft of money, where Defendant Lilas Krichati obtained Company funds under false pretenses and converted them into personal use.”

The lawsuit also says that Hajeh filed a police report in August alleging employee embezzlement.

‘A misunderstanding’

Tedesco said he must file a response to the suit by Monday, adding that he’ll be denying most of the allegations on behalf of his client, Lilas Krichati.

He also questioned whether Hajeh actually was a 50% owner of the business. On both the 2015 and 2017 tax returns — both filed after Hajeh says Mohamad Krichati agreed to make him a 50% owner — Hajeh is listed as a 25% owner, Tedesco said.

“It’s our belief that this is really not much more than a misunderstanding that could have been resolved had there been an effort before filing the lawsuit. It still can be resolved,” he said.

He added that the lawsuit was counterproductive to what he believed both Hajeh and Lilas Krichati want: to keep their restaurant open in a time when many other restaurants are struggling to survive.

Tedesco added that he and Lilas Krichati had a hard time understanding many of the allegations in the complaint.

“It’s my hope that the leaps to conclusions that whoever drafted this petition made do not serve as an impediment to the partners in the business coming to a resolution.

“It’s her intention that Le Monde get through this and that she and Gus get through this and come to an understanding between them.”

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