Corporate Capital Trust Director Resigns Following Police Chase
Corporate Capital Trust Inc., a business development company sponsored by CNL Financial Group and KKR & Co., announced that Kenneth C. Wright resigned from the company’s board of directors and from all of the board committees on which he served, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Wright, who served as an independent director since 2011, was a partner with the law firm of Baker & Hostetler LLP from 1990 until 2016 when he founded the Scholars Group, LLC to participate in entrepreneurial activities. The company said that he was selected as one of its three independent directors because of his extensive legal expertise in transaction structuring and acquisitions.
According to an amended SEC filing, beginning in October 2016, Wright failed to attend a number of board meetings and, in the opinion of the other directors, his behavior at the meetings he did attend was erratic.
The company also disclosed that “in November 2016, Wright was named in a pending criminal proceeding (currently including a felony charge) arising out of events that occurred during his interaction with the Winter Park, Florida, police.”
According to local news reports, Wright is accused of leading police on a high-speed boat chase on Lake Maitland after witnesses called to report his reckless driving after he nearly hit onlookers in another boat. The incident took place at the exclusive Winter Park Racquet Club.
Once on the scene, officers from the Winter Park Police Department said that they ordered Wright to stop three times but were unsuccessful. After performing two obscene hand gestures towards the responding officers as he sped past them in his boat, officers from the Maitland Police Department – who were on boat patrol at the time – were called for assistance.
According to the police report, Wright “slammed the boat into reverse” before slowing to a stop, jumped off the boat, and sprinted away from the multiple officers who were chasing him on foot. As he was running past the club’s swimming pool, an officer tased Wright before taking him into custody.
One officer sustained minor injuries during the pursuit.
Wright has been charged with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, fleeing or eluding police, resisting officers, and reckless operation of a vessel.
Following the incident, the board created a special committee of which Wright was not a member and removed him from both the audit committee and the nominating and governance committee. The board also suggested that he resign as an independent director.
