A simmering disagreement over leadership of one of the country’s oldest Hmong nonprofit organizations is boiling over.

The Lao Family Foundation has sued its own board of directors, saying they have defied demands from the board of trustees for financial information related to the organization’s two annual Hmong festivals.

The board of trustees asserts that it is the nonprofit’s controlling board and that the board of directors answers to it.

The board of directors changed the group’s name in March — unbeknownst to the trustees — to the Hmong Family Foundation.

“There’s a historical dispute and unrest over the subject matter. This is sort of the culmination,” said Steve Ledin, the attorney for the group who filed the lawsuit. “The board of trustees is seeking transparency and clarity. They’ve tried and asked and begged and gotten nothing, so they’re looking to a higher authority to compel some answers.”

According to the lawsuit, filed Thursday in Ramsey County District Court, the Lao Family Foundation was registered as a nonprofit corporation with the Minnesota Secretary of State in September 2012 and got 501(c)(4) tax-exempt status six months later.

According to the organization’s bylaws, the board of trustees manages the operations and creates a board of directors and other subcommittees, the suit said.

The “distinction is that the board of trustees is the highest form of management” and the “board of directors (act) as subservient or subcommittee agents of the board of trustees,” Ledin said. “Our position is there’s only one board, and the bylaws are clear who’s in charge.”

As a result, the board of trustees has requested, but not received, financial documentation from the board of directors since at least August 2014 for the planning and execution of the annual Hmong New Year Celebration and the Hmong Fourth of July Freedom Celebration. Both events draw huge crowds.

In November 2014, the Minnesota Attorney General’s office began its own investigation into the organization, the suit said. A spokesman for the attorney’s office said Thursday that complaint and investigative data are nonpublic, so he could neither confirm nor deny existence of an investigation.

Last month, the board of trustees voted to eject the board of directors and made a final demand for financial records, the suit said.

The lawsuit asks the court to confirm that the board of trustees is in charge of the organization and to issue a temporary injunction against the board of directors.

A member of the board of directors and an attorney who has represented them in the past both declined comment Thursday.

The Lao Family Community of Minnesota nonprofit was established in 1977 as an association supporting Hmong refugees coming to the Twin Cities from refugee camps in Thailand. It oversaw the annual Hmong New Year’s celebration and the Fourth of July Freedom Festival at Como Park until 2013, when a spinoff entity, the Lao Family Foundation, took over the popular events.

In December 2010, a dispute over election results for the board president resulted in a court intervention. ChuPheng Lee took his seat as president in May 2011 and later said the infighting had hurt the organization’s credibility and fundraising abilities.

A group called the Hmong Heritage Preservation Committee of Minnesota was created by former Lao Family board members and their supporters after the contested 2010 board election. They disputed ChuPheng Lee’s election and accused him and the board of financial mismanagement and cronyism.

ChuPheng Lee did not immediately return a call for comment Thursday.

In March 2014, protesters identifying themselves as members of the new Hmong Heritage Preservation Committee showed up outside the Lao Family Community of Minnesota headquarters on University Avenue in St. Paul calling for the ouster of the board and board president.

This year, the organization nearly lost its University Avenue building, where it has been housed since 1994. The Lao Family Community of Minnesota Inc. had defaulted on its mortgage, and the property was slated for a sheriff’s sale. At the eleventh hour, the group obtained a private loan from a relative of the board of directors’ new president.

Frederick Melo contributed to this report. Elizabeth Mohr can be reached at 651-228-5162. Follow her at twitter.com/LizMohr.