Icon Investors File Lawsuit Against Major Shareholder Linked to Chinese Communist Party
On June 1, Icon Aircraft founder Kirk Hawkins and other minority shareholders of the company filed a lawsuit against the company’s majority shareholder Pudong Science and Technology Investment Inc. (PDSTI) in Delaware Chancery Court (Docket No. 2021-0475). The minority group also includes a former Icon board member and former Boeing CEO Phil Condit.
According to Aviation International News, the minority shareholders are accusing PDSTI of seizing control of the management of the company, breaching their fiduciary duty to shareholders, removing minority American board members, and blocking the company’s takeover negotiations with Yamaha. The moves are “all in support of its goal to expropriate Icon’s intellectual property to China,” reported AV Web, a global aviation news portal, on June 8, 2021.