Ex-CEO sues Ezenia

Khoa Nguyen, former chief executive officer of Ezenia, has filed a $1.15 million suit against the Nashua company — an amount that’s twice as much as the company has in cash, according to the company’s quarterly filing to the SEC.In the suit, filed last month in Virginia Circuit Court in Fairfax County, Nguyen alleges that the board basically squeezed him out and forced him to resign, resulting in a change of status that should result in various change-in-control payments. Ezenia, which said it has already paid Nguyen $308,000 in severance costs, said it plans to defend itself against the lawsuit.Nguyen stepped down from the CEO post on June 9 after months of turmoil at the company, which has lost $8 million in the last 2 1/2 years — a million dollars in the last quarter alone – and has laid off half of its workforce (including its president). The company also has – at the insistence of some of its creditors and investors – installed a whole new board of directors.The latest losses, mainly due to Ezenia’s revenue shrinking by a third over the last year, has left the company with $648,000 in cash – a little more than a third the amount it had at the start of the year — and a negative stockholder equity of $1.127 million. It started the year in the black with an equity of $612,000. — BOB SANDERS/NEW HAMPSHIRE BUSINESS REVIEW