Retired former Republican state senator Rick Gunn has filed a lawsuit in Alamance County superior court, in hopes of obtaining a judgment declaring him as the rightful owner of gemstones that a collector in Maryland also claims to own.
Though now semi-retired, Gunn continues to be active in the local commercial real estate market through his firm, Gunn & Associates in Burlington, and co-owns several locations in North Carolina and Virginia for the American Family Care chain of urgent care clinics.
He represented all of Alamance County and part of eastern Guilford County in the state senate from 2010 until his resignation in 2020.
Gunn claims to have obtained ownership of four boxes of gemstones called “Golden Sunshine,” which is similar to citrine, from Power-Stone Industries Corporation 15 years ago. The gemstones were used as collateral for security instruments that Power-Stone allegedly later breached. The court file gives no indication of what type of security instruments that the gemstones had been used to secure.
PowerStone Industries Corporation is a development company based in Florida, according to the suit.
At the time that PowerStone Industries Corporation forfeited the collateral gemstones, around 2010, the company had also been registered to do business in North Carolina and had its registered office at 1602 Memorial Drive in Burlington, according to annual reports filed with the Secretary of State’s office, which administratively dissolved the company in February 2023.
PowerStone Industries Corporation had been owned by Aaron D. Graves of Burlington, according to Gunn’s suit. Graves passed away in October 2024, based on an obituary published at the time by a funeral service in Graham that handled the arrangements.
Two months later, in December 2024, the defendant, Joel Aram of Maryland, claiming to be the owner of the gemstones, contacted Gunn through an attorney, according to the suit.
“Aram claims to have transferred the gemstone to PowerStone/Graves in North Carolina in 2010 – knowingly to be used by PowerStone/Graves as collateral within North Carolina,” Gunn’s suit asserts. “Unsurprisingly, PowerStone did indeed use the gemstone as collateral to Gunn.” The court file lists the address for the defendant, Aram, as a Post Office box in Laytonsville, Maryland.
Aram is a gemologist who previously served as a crystallographer for the Department of Mineral Sciences within the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. during the early 1970s, as well as a consultant to the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, Eastman Kodak, and the U.S. Department of Commerce, among other professional activities, according to a copy of his resume that is posted on Aram’s website.
“Now, Aram’s Maryland attorney…is aggressively claiming that, under North Carolina law, his client is entitled to possession of the gemstones,” according to the suit that Gunn and his company, Gunn & Associates, filed against Aram in Alamance County superior court in July 2025.
The plaintiff contends that he lawfully obtained ownership of the gemstones “as collateral [that] was forfeited” and that any claim by the defendant has long been abandoned by the statute of limitation.
Gunn is requesting a judgment declaring him to be the rightful owner of the gemstones; he is also seeking recovery of his attorneys’ fees and court costs.
A hearing is currently scheduled for August 17 in Alamance County superior court to determine the status of the case.
Gunn is being represented by the Brown, Faucher, Peraldo & Benson law firm in Greensboro.
The defendant had not filed a response to the lawsuit by press time.
