WA Labor MP being sued in US over alleged $1 million unpaid loan
West Australian Labor MP Jagadish Krishnan is being sued by a New York businessman over claims he failed to pay back a $1 million loan secured during his visit to the US in May 2024.
The plaintiff, Kannan Amalraj and his company Kenyan Consulting LLC, has filed a lawsuit in a New Jersey court accusing Krishnan of “unjustly enriching” himself by not paying back the loan in the agreed timeframe and is seeking $1.2 million from the Riverton MP, inclusive of interest.
Krishnan has vowed to defend the lawsuit and has countersued, beginning defamation proceedings in the WA Supreme Court this week over emails regarding the disputed loan that Amalraj and his wife sent to high-profile figures in WA, including Energy Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson and Premier Roger Cook, earlier this year.
According to court documents lodged in the New Jersey District Court on October 20, Amalraj alleged Krishnan reached out to him through a mutual friend in the first week of May 2024.
He alleged Krishnan was reaching out to discuss “fundraising activities” for Krishnan’s GP network Spectrum Health – which the Labor MP was a major shareholder of until its multimillion-dollar sale this week.
Amalraj claimed the first request “to address what he described as a critical financial situation” for $US250,000 came in early May, 2024, over a phone call arranged between the men by a mutual friend.
He claimed he agreed to lend Krishan the money and sent two USD$125,000 tranches on May 6 and May 8.
Amalraj alleged he arranged a limousine for Krishnan to meet him and another US investor at a diner in Connecticut on May 31, where Krishnan pitched the Spectrum Health business to the other investor.
After the meeting, Amalraj claimed he took Krishnan to his home in Short Hills, New Jersey, where he alleged Krishnan requested more funding and the men agreed Kenyan Consulting would pay Krishnan a further $US405,000. That money was allegedly sent in two tranches in July, 2024.
Despite the fundraising including a pitch deck for Spectrum Health, Amalraj alleged Krishnan instead asked the loan amounts be transferred to Codd Technologies Pty Ltd, a company the MP’s wife is the sole director and shareholder of.
Amalraj claimed he was told the two companies were connected, which was why Krishnan requested the money be sent to his wife’s company.
ASIC documents show the two companies are not affiliated.
In the court documents, Amalraj alleged the loan had not been repaid to date, despite an oral agreement it would be settled within a year while generating interest at 8 per cent per annum.
He alleged Krishnan intentionally tried to “confuse the situation, cause delay and avoid repayment” through a “pattern of non-response, evasive explanations and unsupported assertions”.
Amalraj and his wife, Gokila Amalraj, who is chief executive of Kenyan Consulting, sent the offices of Cook and Sanderson emails earlier this year detailing their concerns about the loan.
In response to questions from this masthead, Krishnan’s lawyer Martin Bennett said the lawsuit would be “fully defended”.
He described the New Jersey court action as baseless and shared a copy of the loan agreement signed by Krishnan’s wife, Yaamini Jagadish, as a director of Codd Technologies and Gokila on behalf of Kenyan Consulting.
That agreement stated the loan was agreed to on May 15, 2024 with a 6 per cent per annum interest rate, and the repayment period was over nine years.
On behalf of Krishnan, Bennett lodged a writ on Monday to begin defamation proceedings against Kannan and Gokila over the email sent to Sanderson in June 2026 and another email sent to other parties detailing the loan issue.
The writ filed in WA’s Supreme Court claimed the emails “falsely and maliciously defamed” Krishnan.
Krishnan is seeking damages and an injunction to stop the couple repeating their claims.
Amalraj and Krishnan both have cultural roots in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu.
Krishnan has been the Member for Riverton since 2021, and he was Parliamentary Secretary to Premier Roger Cook from December 2023 to March 2025.
This masthead revealed last year that Krishnan partially owned a northern suburbs GP clinic which was publicly admonished by Health Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson for not meeting with the family of a toddler who died from undetected leukaemia.
9News reported last year that Krishnan’s business partner took his family trust to court for $53,000, lawyers demanded another $52,000 regarding the MP’s running of medical practices.
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