Three weeks after Copa Health claimed its former CEO \u201cabused her position and Copa\u2019s corporate credit card to fund a lavish personal lifestyle,\u201d Scottsdale Dr. Shar Najafi-Piper filed an aggressive response.<\/p>\n
Najafi-Piper\u2019s lawyers claim the suit is \u201cfull of provably false accusations\u201d and was \u201cdriven by the animus and callous disregard displayed by (Copa\u2019s) current board chairman and now-new CEO (David Day).\u201d<\/p>\n
On March 23, the Mesa-based Copa Health filed a suit against Najafi-Piper, her husband Brian Piper and Roya Health \u2013 which Najafi-Piper started while serving as Copa\u2019s head.<\/p>\n
Copa fired Najafi-Piper in January.<\/p>\n
In stark contrast to the Copa suit\u2019s portrait of a lackadaisical leader who siphoned her time and the company\u2019s resources to her new Roya Health, the response states \u201cDr. Sharareh Najafi-Piper served successfully and faithfully as CEO of Copa Health, Inc. for six-plus years.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThroughout that period, Dr. Najafi-Piper led Copa to excellent growth and results while inspiring female and minority leadership in the healthcare space.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Gabriel Aragon, an attorney with Coppersmith Brockelman, Copa \u201crepeatedly raised and rewarded her for her performance.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The response claims \u201cCopa\u2019s true motive was to publicly smear Dr. Najafi-Piper.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCopa\u2019s claims are baseless and were brought for an improper purpose, realities Dr. Najafi-Piper looks forward to proving in the appropriate forum,\u201d Aragon wrote to Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Melissa Julian.<\/p>\n
The attorney attached a copy of Najafi-Piper\u2019s contract, with an arbitration clause stating she and Copa \u201cwaive the right to resolve any such dispute through a trial by jury or judge or administrative proceeding.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another attachment shows a 2025 text exchange, in which the current Copa CEO Day states, \u201cyou are a remarkable friend and CEO. It is a pleasure to serve as your board chairman.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another 2025 Day text calls Najafi-Piper \u201cthe best thing to ever happen to Copa. I\u2019m a big fan!\u201d<\/p>\n
Claiming Copa \u201cwrongfully\u201d filed the lawsuit, Aragon demands \u201cCopa should be ordered to reimburse Dr. Najafi-Piper for her attorneys\u2019 fees and costs incurred.\u201d<\/p>\n
Background<\/strong><\/p>\n Najafi-Piper co-founded Roya \u2013 the Farsi word for dream \u2013 as an\u00a0\u00a0\u201cintegrated behavioral health company serving children, families, and underserved communities across Arizona,\u201d according to Roya\u2019s website.<\/p>\n Copa Health says it was a scheme, not a dream \u2013 and that its former chief executive officer overserved herself.<\/p>\n According to the lawsuit, the former Copa CEO \u201cabused her position and Copa\u2019s corporate credit card to fund a lavish\u00a0personal lifestyle.\u201d<\/p>\n According to its website, Copa Health charges a sliding fee \u201cdesigned to make behavioral health and primary care services accessible to everyone, regardless of their financial situation or insurance status.\u201d<\/p>\n Court documents show Najafi-Piper lives on East Onyx Court, near East Via Linda and Shea Boulevard.<\/p>\n According to Zillow, her four-bedroom home is valued at $2.3 million \u2013 more than double what she paid for it in 2018.<\/p>\n Her Roya bio describes Najafi-Piper as \u201ca licensed psychologist by training and a child advocate by conviction, she has spent more than 25 years building systems of care for the people most likely to fall through the cracks of the traditional healthcare system.\u201d<\/p>\n According to her online biography, \u201cNajafi-Piper holds a doctorate in psychology from Harold Abel School of Psychology and a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Arizona State University. She has been in behavioral health leadership since 2008, with deep expertise in integrated care models, Medicaid managed care, contract development, and building organizations that serve complex-needs populations.<\/p>\n \u201cPrior to founding Roya Health, she held a variety of senior leadership roles \u2026 acting as the president for Complex Care at Equality Health and the vice president for Outpatient Services at Southwest Behavioral.\u201d<\/p>\n Copa charges<\/strong><\/p>\n The suit claims \u201cNajafi-Piper betrayed the trust placed in her by Copa\u2019s Board of Directors and the vulnerable populations Copa serves by orchestrating a years-long scheme to systematically plunder Copa\u2019s resources to fund Roya Health and her lavish lifestyle.\u201d<\/p>\n The Mesa nonprofit paints a picture of Najafi-Piper \u201ccharging hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not more, in personal expenses to Copa between 2021 and 2025, including luxury vacations, premium sports tickets, like the Super Bowl, designer goods, personal security details, limousine services, charitable donations to her children\u2019s school \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n Copa also accuses Najafi-Piper of double dipping and corporate backstabbing:<\/p>\n \u201cWhile serving as Copa\u2019s CEO, Najafi-Piper co-founded Roya<\/p>\n Health, which in Arizona offers the same or similar services to those Copa offers to the same or similar client base and vie for the same or similar limited pool of donor and grant money as Copa.<\/p>\n \u201cNajafi-Piper and Roya Health then systematically pillaged<\/p>\n Copa\u2019s confidential business information, trade secrets, proprietary forms, policies, and procedures, and employee expertise to build Roya at Copa\u2019s expense and detriment.\u201d<\/p>\n The amended suit claims \u201cNajafi-Piper\u2019s scheme involved multiple interconnected components.\u201d She allegedly also started Roya Holdings, \u201can Arizona limited liability company, at the same address as Roya Health\u2019s Mesa, Arizona location.\u201d<\/p>\n Biting the hand of the company feeding her big paychecks, the suit claims, she \u201cpillaged Copa\u2019s confidential business information, trade secrets, proprietary forms, policies, and procedures, and employee expertise.\u2019<\/p>\n Before the Copa board fired her three months ago, Najafi-Piper deceived Copa for upwards of five years, according to the filing.<\/p>\n \u201cNajafi-Piper used a combination of misrepresentations, fraud, and \u2018consulting\u2019 fees to keep her practices concealed from Copa\u2019s Board of Directors,\u201d according to the lawsuit. \u201cWhen the board learned Najafi-Piper had been using Copa\u2019s resources \u2013 resources that should have been devoted to Copa\u2019s mission of serving vulnerable populations \u2013 to fund her lifestyle and had formed a competing business, Copa\u2019s Board of Directors voted<\/p>\n unanimously to terminate her employment.\u201d<\/p>\n Copa says it hired Najafi-Piper as CEO in 2019, compensating her around $700,000 per year \u2013 plus a $20,000 car allowance.<\/p>\n In September 2022,\u00a0 Najafi-Piper started Roya Health, which the suit alleges is a \u201cdirect competitor\u201d of Copa.<\/p>\n She told board members and Copa staff that Roya Health had a \u201cpartnership\u201d or \u201cjoint venture\u201d with Copa, according to the lawsuit.<\/p>\n And, \u201cDuring the period when Najafi-Piper was building Roya Health, she typically showed up at Copa\u2019s offices in Mesa once per week.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the suit claims, Najafi-Piper ordered $374,725 in Arizona Cardinals football tickets on Copa\u2019s tab: \u201cWhile the stated purpose was \u2018staff benefit\/team building,\u2019 Najafi-Piper, her family, and their personal guests were the primary beneficiaries of these premium sporting events. Copa\u2019s Board did not authorize or approve these expenditures.\u201d<\/p>\n She allegedly spent another $250,000 on dues, dinners, travel, and events for the Young Presidents\u2019 Organization \u2013 and \u201cmore than $200,000 on airfare and hotels.<\/p>\n \u201cThese travels included stays for herself and her family at resorts around the world, such as: Le Royal Monceaux, Paris, France; the Ritz Carlton in New Orleans, Louisiana; the Rimrock Resort Hotel in Banff, Canada; the Velas Resorts in Mexico; the\u00a0Sheraton in Hawaii; and Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills, California.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Three weeks after Copa Health claimed its former CEO \u201cabused her position and Copa\u2019s corporate credit card to…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":758413,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5131],"tags":[5229,5643,1587,14336,299555,1589,299553,103367,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-758412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-phoenix","tag-america","tag-arizona","tag-az","tag-ceo","tag-najafi-piper","tag-phoenix","tag-shar-najafi-piper","tag-smear-campaign","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116481070743833742","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/758412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=758412"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/758412\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/758413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=758412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=758412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=758412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}