This is a strange story unfolding. Last Wednesday, Colin Veitch, former CEO of NCL, brought a breach of contract suit against Virgin Management USA Inc. and Richard Branson. Here’s the details from Justia:
Plaintiff: Colin Veitch and VSM DEVELOPMENT, INC.
Defendant: VIRGIN MANAGEMENT USA, INC., VIRGIN MANAGEMENT LTD., VIRGIN GROUP INVESTMENTS LTD. and VIRGIN CRUISES
Case Number: 1:2015cv20989
Filed: March 11, 2015
Court: Florida Southern District Court
Office: Miami Office
County: Miami-Dade
Presiding Judge: K. Michael Moore
Nature of Suit: Contract: Other
Cause of Action: 28:1332 Diversity-Breach of Contract
It seems that it was Colin Veitch that approached Mr. Branson with the idea for a cruise line. The suit claims that Mr. Branson was supposed to make Mr. Veitch an owner and founder, thus entitling him to significantly higher royalties. Instead he was brought on as an employee thus costing him $300 million, according to the law suit.
I’ve always been harsh towards Mr. Veitch as is was under his management that saw NCL on the brink of bankruptcy several times since he took over. Mr. Vietch was responsible for the disastrous NCL America launch however IS credited with Freestlye Cruising. To be fair though, it’s not like he inherited a highly functioning and streamlined operation from former CEO Geir Aune. Seems like the Branson type, high risk [risky fleet deployment] high reward [freestlye cruising was ground breaking at the time].