TIMTS
That doesn't have a grain of truth to it! The Vne is a complex limit, because once it is established, then many calculations about dynamic system life are made from the flight loads at Vne (and reducing multiples of it, based on the fatigue spectrum). The static structure (airframe) does certainly not limit speed on any helicopter I know of. Above Vne, the rotating components are under more stress and their lives can be shorter as a result.
The Vne of the S-76 was initially set by three simple factors:
1) the maximum speed needed to meet the business plan goals for a practical high speed cruise of 145 knots with some margin for gusts.
2) a level flight speed that allowed productive flight tests where the Vne could be achieved in level flight at full power, so that no hairy chested dives were needed during the structural testing, since dives consume lots of time climbing back to the test altitude and then accelerating back to Vne.
3) The need to meet 29.173 longitudinal static stick stability, which involved pushing to 1.1 Vne in a screaming dive as a "level flight" point. The FAR was since corrected, and is much more sane now.
I have seen some comparisons of aircraft where the Vne was published as a "maximum speed" even if it is a dive point far above anything achievable with normal flight performance. These are usually fallouts of military Vdive points, and relatively meaningless for comparison, where actual flight performance is the real index. The Black Hawk has a 193 Vne, but the S-76 has just the same speed in level flight.