A two-year legal dispute between Saint Augustine’s University (SAU) board chair Brian Boulware and former trustee George Brooks reached an anticlimactic détente last week when Boulware’s three companies declared bankruptcy, triggering an indefinite pause in the proceedings.
The two men, both of Atlanta, have been entangled in litigation since 2022, when Boulware defaulted on a six-figure business loan from Brooks. More recently, a judge found that Boulware used some of that loan—which he still hasn’t repaid—for personal expenses including the purchase of a Range Rover and payments to an SAU employee named Wanda Wagner.
According to legal filings, Boulware, an entrepreneur, and Brooks, a UPS executive, got into business together in 2021 while they were both serving as trustees of Saint Augustine’s University. Brooks invested $600,000 across Boulware’s three Georgia cigar businesses: Studio Cigars Corp.; WiseAsh Cigars 2, LLC; and BB Cigar Distributors Corp. Soon after, Boulware began defaulting on interest payments and Brooks sued him and his companies to recoup the loan. (Brooks resigned from SAU’s board in 2024.)
<![CDATA[
var divsize = document.querySelector('#emp-3f88b').parentNode.clientWidth;
var rnd = Math.floor(Math.random()*10e6);
var pid703909 = rnd;
var plc703909 = window.plc703909 || 0;
var abkw = window.abkw || '';
var absrc = 'https://ads.empowerlocal.co/adserve/;ID=181918;size=0x0;setID=703909;type=js;sw='+screen.width+';sh='+screen.height+';spr='+window.devicePixelRatio+';kw='+abkw+';pid='+pid703909+';place='+(plc703909++)+';rnd='+rnd+';click=CLICK_MACRO_PLACEHOLDER';
var _absrc = absrc.split("type=js"); absrc = _absrc[0] + 'type=js;referrer=' + encodeURIComponent(document.location.href) + _absrc[1];
document.write('‘);
]]>
After years of legal back-and-forth, a Georgia court ruled in Brooks’s favor in January, ordering Boulware to pay back the original loan with interest. The judge found that Boulware had been “abusing” his business bank accounts “as a mere extension of his personal affairs,” spending over $100,000 on hotels, meals, entertainment, the Range Rover, and the payments to Wagner.
Boulware disputed the ruling and asked for a new trial, arguing that he had been unable to properly defend himself because his former lawyer had withdrawn from the case and he had contracted bronchitis ahead of the trial so could not appear in court.
The judge agreed to give Boulware another chance and scheduled a final hearing for Friday, May 16.
But on Thursday, May 15, Boulware’s three cigar companies all declared Chapter 7 bankruptcy. At the hearing the next morning, the judge placed the case into a “stay” status, essentially pausing Brooks’s lawsuit indefinitely on account of Boulware’s companies’ funds being tied up in bankruptcy proceedings.
Boulware, Brooks, and their lawyers did not respond to INDY’s requests for comment.
Also on May 15, just before the hearing, Brooks’s lawyer Vernon Strickland submitted a brief to the court arguing that Brooks should be able to “pierce the corporate veil” and reclaim his money directly from Boulware rather than from his companies. Strickland argues in the brief that since Boulware “disregarded the separateness of the corporate entity” from himself, he should be held personally liable for the debt.
Outside of court, Boulware is fending off harsh criticism of his leadership of SAU. As the school teeters on the brink of accreditation lossa long list of alumni, former employees, and former trustees have laid the blame for its current financial and reputational woes at his feet, accusing him of mismanagement and overreach during his time as board chair.
Boulware, for his part, maintains that SAU’s challenges date back to previous, negligent administrations and that he is the right person to navigate the school through its existential challenges.
A final decision on the university’s accreditation is due later this summer.
Chloe Courtney Bohl is a Report for America corps member. Follow her on Bluesky or reach her at chloe@indyweek.com. Comment on this story at backtalk@indyweek.com.
<![CDATA[
var divsize = document.querySelector('#emp-eeea1').parentNode.clientWidth;
var rnd = Math.floor(Math.random()*10e6);
var pid703913 = rnd;
var plc703913 = window.plc703913 || 0;
var abkw = window.abkw || '';
var absrc = 'https://ads.empowerlocal.co/adserve/;ID=181918;size=0x0;setID=703913;type=js;sw='+screen.width+';sh='+screen.height+';spr='+window.devicePixelRatio+';kw='+abkw+';pid='+pid703913+';place='+(plc703913++)+';rnd='+rnd+';click=CLICK_MACRO_PLACEHOLDER';
var _absrc = absrc.split("type=js"); absrc = _absrc[0] + 'type=js;referrer=' + encodeURIComponent(document.location.href) + _absrc[1];
document.write('‘);
]]>
