Famous British billionaire and entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson is being sued by a shareholder of Virgin Galactic, a spaceflight company he founded back in 2004.
According to MailOnline, the lawsuit, filed on behalf of Virgin Galactic shareholders by Thomas Spiteri in the US District Court in the Eastern District of New York, claims that the prototypes for Virgin Galactic’s Unity spacecraft and Eve carrier mothership were "severely flawed."
"In fact, the prototypes were not meant to be taken into the air," legal documents cited by the newspaper say. "Rather, they were meant to provide a starting design point for the company to create its own commercial-grade vehicle that was safe and flightworthy – two things Eve and Unity certainly were not."
Alleging that the spacecraft "were not designed for commercial purposes… had cracks develop after every flight, and lacked appropriately scheduled maintenance," the lawsuit also claims that Virgin Galactic’s launch in July 2021, in which Branson himself was a passenger, sustained damage midflight, and that "cracks were found in key locations on the vehicles."
Also, the lawsuit reportedly alleges that Branson sold some 16 million shares of the company between April and August last year for about £346 million while the stock was “artificially inflated”, with the newspaper noting that the billionaire sold over$1 billion of Virgin Galactic shares since early 2020.
The plaintiff reportedly seeks from Branson, as well as from the company’s management, for alleged breach of fiduciary duty, unjust enrichment, gross mismanagement, abuse of control, waste of corporate assets, and violations of the Exchange Act.
A spokesperson for Virgin Galactic, however, described the allegations as "without merit," and that the company will address them "in the appropriate forum," the newspaper adds.