Attorney Geoffrey Harper with King and Spaulding provided comments to Law360 after Delta Black Aerospace Inc. filed counterclaims in a Texas court alleging former executives conspired with Hop Flyt Inc. to misappropriate intellectual property for a rival startup, Aurex Aerospace.  

The suit claims a “smash and grab” scheme involving the diversion of “Raider 330” military drone technology following a wrongful termination suit brought by the executives.  

The case alleges breach of fiduciary duty by former CEO Clay Kroschel and COO Bronson Ignacio, who are accused of shifting assets to the new venture while falsely claiming wrongful termination from Delta Black. This litigation underscores a high-stakes dispute over drone technology ownership and licensing rights within the aerospace sector. 

“The truth is that we have only discovered the tip of the iceberg of the executives’ wrongdoing. Their decisions to forge documents and then attempt to digitally erase the evidence of their scheme is simply astounding. And while they are now trying to defraud Delta Black, the US military, and the courts, their scheme is at an end because metadata and other electronic evidence do not lie,” Harper said in a statement.

Read more here.