WhatsApps, Fake Names and an Alleged Conspiracy Against VistaJet
- Thomas Flohr accuses private jet rival of smear campaign
- Financier Timothy Horlick and AirX founder deny claims
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By
Sabah Meddings and
Siddharth Vikram Philip
13. März 2024 at 16:01 MEZ
The owner of VistaJet, one of the world’s biggest private jet firms, has alleged in legal filings that a smaller rival and a prominent British financier launched a smear campaign against him.In a London High Court battle that involves allegations of covert codes, secret WhatsApp groups and a fake email address, Swiss entrepreneur Thomas Flohr claims that the AirX founder John Matthews and financier Timothy Horlick arranged to release confidential information about him with the intention of ruining his reputation and damaging his company, according to legal filings.
VistaJet Group Holding Ltd. and AirX operate in similar markets, and Flohr alleges harmful information about him was sent to an audience selected to have the “maximum likelihood of damaging” his reputation and business interests, according to the skeleton argument submitted in court on March 6. Both Horlick and Matthews deny this.
Flohr claims that Matthews used a burner email address with a fabricated identity to send emails with information, that a court had ordered to be kept confidential, to business contacts of VistaJet. These allegedly included
Bombardier Inc. and
Export Development Canada, one of VistaJet’s aircraft finance institutions.
He further alleges that Matthews created a WhatsApp group in March last year, titled VistaComms, which was allegedly used to discuss with colleagues how to use burner emails to share confidential information about VistaJet with parties including lenders, business partners and journalists.
The aim, according to the WhatsApp messages submitted to the court — which Flohr’s lawyers said were released to him by a whistleblower — was to harm the interests of Flohr, and to benefit from VistaJet’s potential demise. Matthews would benefit from VistaJet’s failure by increasing AirX’s rates and scooping up planes if VistaJet collapsed, according to a series of WhatsApp messages between March 2023 and February 2024 filed in court.
VistaJet was founded by the 63-year-old Flohr two decades ago, and offers customers subscriptions to its planes, as an alternative to owning their own aircraft. AirX, which according to its website is majority-owned by British entrepreneur Matthews, is a much smaller Malta-based outfit that allows customers to charter planes.
The allegations are the latest twist in a London High Court battle between between Horlick and Flohr over allegations Flohr defrauded a Guernsey investment partnership two decades ago. In the case, Horlick has accused Flohr of hiding assets when the pair were in a Guernsey investment partnership in the early 2000s, meaning Flohr avoided triggering a further payout. Flohr has denied these allegations, and has sought to have the claim struck out.
‘No Digital History’
Through his lawyers The Khan Partnership, Horlick expressly denied passing on any materials subject to confidentiality orders. The Khan Partnership said the claims were a distraction from the ongoing court proceedings against Flohr.
Lawyers for Matthews said: “Air X and Mr. Matthews vigorously deny the allegations of conspiracy made against them.” They also pointed out that they weren’t a party to the proceedings and so weren’t in a position to comment further at this stage.
As part of the Guernsey case, a judge ruled that certain documents that Horlick wanted to introduce, that could be damaging to Flohr’s reputation, should remain confidential. The sharing of these documents is at the heart of the alleged smear campaign and Flohr’s lawyers alleged that Horlick had previously sought to make the information public to force the Swiss businessman to settle to protect his reputation, according to a court argument.
Flohr also alleged Matthews met Horlick over lunch, and spoke to him on the phone, shortly before Matthews allegedly circulated screen-shots from the embargoed witness statements.
“The conversations did not discuss, nor relate to anything concerning, Mr Matthews’ alleged later receipt of third-party witness statements,” Horlick’s lawyers said.
Horlick’s lawyers also questioned whether versions of the witness statements allegedly given to third parties were identical to the copies filed in the court — suggesting they may not be subject to the confidentiality order.
Matthews allegedly shared 10 screen-shots that were subject to court restrictions. “Make sure the attachments have no digital history,” WhatsApp messages in evidence appear to show Matthews saying to his employees.
In another message introduced in court, Matthews appears to say: “Today is an important day marking the release of the witness statements to all at Bombardier who hold an executive title.”
‘Covert Communication’
VistaJet has in recent years fueled its expansion with debt, using it to buy a fleet of brand new Bombardier Global 7500 planes, as well as smaller rivals Air Hamburg and Jet Edge, to more than double its fleet to 332 jets.
There are messages filed in court that allege Matthews was receiving information from within Air Hamburg, the private aviation firm VistaJet bought in February 2022.
In one, sent on April 25, 2023, Matthews appeared to explain a code used to communicate with former Air Hamburg CEO Floris Helmers when sharing information. “Whenever I ask about the weather, if it’s cloudy there is nothing to report, when he says it’s sunny it’s a one-time view only with a document that will help the investigation,” he wrote in the WhatsApp message submitted as court evidence.
In an email to Bloomberg News, Helmers said he absolutely denied having used a code for sharing evidence. Helmers added that he had known Matthews for more than 10 years, and conversations between them had focused on industry trends such as aircraft valuations.
“As an ongoing employee of Vista, the assertion that I have been engaged in ‘covert communication’ is a bit perplexing and of course without merit,” he said.
— With assistance from Tiffany Tsoi, Katharine Gemmell, and Erin Hudson