Canada Jetlines Sues Westjet Co-Founder David Neelman

[dialdriver]

https://www.jetlines.com/en/news/jetlin ... affiliates

[GoinVertical]

Here's the complaint:

Plaintiffs Canada Jetlines Ltd. and Canada Jetlines Operations Ltd. (together, “Plaintiffs” or “Jetlines”), by their undersigned attorneys, allege as follows for their Complaint herein:

1. This is an action for tortious interference with business expectancy and violation of the Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act (CUTPA), C.G.S.A § 42-110a et seq. In July and
August 2018, Defendants David Neeleman (“Neeleman”), DGN Corporation (“DGN”) and Breeze Aviation Group, Inc. (together, “Defendants”), embarked upon a predatory scheme to destroy the relationships between Jetlines, on one hand, and Jetlines’ CEO and a leading international investment bank (the “Bank”), on the other hand, with the purpose and ultimate effects of (i)
causing the Bank to terminate its engagement to assist Jetlines in raising the new investment capital that was and is essential to Jetlines’ ability to commence operations as an ultra low-cost passenger air carrier (“ULCC”) in Canada, and (ii) causing related financial and operational damage to Jetlines.

2. During that time, Defendants deliberately induced Jetlines’ Chief Executive Officer, Lukas Johnson (“Johnson”), to participate in a series of secret communications and meetings that Neeleman knew to be in breach of Johnson’s contractual and fiduciary duties to Jetlines, including but not limited to Johnson’s duties of loyalty, candor and full-time attention to
his responsibilities as Jetlines’ CEO.

3. During those communications and meetings, which the participants kept secret from Jetlines through, among other things, a nondisclosure agreement that Defendants induced
Johnsons to sign in late July 2018, Neeleman sought to lure Johnson away from Jetlines and otherwise to obtain his services and advice concerning Neeleman’s own new airline venture, code-named Moxy, which was owned and to be operated by Defendant Breeze Aviation Group, Inc. (“Moxy”). Neeleman is a founder and principal of Moxy. Neeleman knew that Jetlines was relying heavily on Johnson as its principal representative in its financing efforts with the Bank and that Johnson, as Jetlines’ CEO, would become indispensable to those efforts as they approached the imminent date upon which the Bank and Jetlines would begin their presentations to prospective investors.

4. Defendants conspired with Johnson to mislead Jetlines and the Bank into believing that Johnson was fully committed to Jetlines’ future and to seeing its financing effort and operational launch through to their conclusion, even as Defendants were working secretly with Johnson to engineer his departure at the point in time most likely to injure Jetlines. Neeleman’s overriding purpose in that deception was to derail Jetlines’ relationship with the Bank and thereby to delay and hinder Jetlines from obtaining new financing and commencing operations as a Canadian ULCC. In that, he succeeded.

5. Late in the evening of August 27, 2018, as Jetlines and the Bank were poised to launch their critical presentations to prospective investors, in which Johnson was to play a central
role and which were structured to emphasize his standing in the industry and his importance as Jetlines’ CEO, Johnson stunned Jetlines by announcing without prior warning that he would be resigning in order to work for Neeleman’s new venture, Moxy. Almost immediately thereafter, and before Jetlines itself could respond to the event that Neeleman had secretly orchestrated over the course of at least the preceding month, Neeleman telephoned the Bank’s Managing Director in
charge of the Jetlines project and announced that he, Neeleman, had hired away Jetlines’ CEO. Neeleman had no other legitimate purpose for making that call at that time.

6. As Neeleman maliciously intended, his surprise announcement caused the Bank immediately to suspend its efforts to procure new financing for Jetlines. The Bank advised Jetlines at the time that Johnson’s departure was a huge blow to the company, that the Bank was uncertain Jetlines could recover from it, and that the Bank would be unable even to consider marketing the company again for many months, if at all. Some three months after going “pens down” in this fashion, the Bank notified Jetlines in writing that its engagement was terminated, effective December 8, 2018.

7. Neeleman’s intentional interference with Jetlines’ relationships with Johnson and the Bank has caused substantial damage to Jetlines. Among other things, Jetlines’ reputation in the airline and financial industries, and with prospective investors, was injured; Jetlines’ ability to
obtain crucial financing commence flight operations and earn related revenues was delayed; Jetlines’ lease agreement for certain aircraft was terminated, causing it to lose USD $2.2 million in non-refundable deposits; and the amount of financing available to Jetlines was significantly
reduced.

[yepivedonethat]

I guess this is what you do when you run out of money, can't secure financing through traditional methods and your offerings of stock options in a paper company have run dry.

https://www.ctvnews.ca/business/canada- ... -1.4659595

This so-called paper airline is a joke. When is everyone going to stop paying attention to them, especially the media?

[boeingboy]

Usually - when investors look to invest in a company - they will look at how much the founders are willing to risk themselves. They typically will look for you to raise about 10% of the needed costs yourself. Out of the $70 million these guys needed initially - they only raised about $500,000.....most of that was $5000 here and there from family and friends. The biggest single investment was $125,000 from one of the founders.

That says a lot about how much they believed in the business itself.

It's real easy to play with someone else's money!

[Old fella]

This Canada Jetlines joke is still managing to get itself in the media, hopefully it gets less than scant attention.