[FONT=Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif]Israel Accused of Blocking Commercial Satellite Imagery Deal with Venezuela
[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif][FONT=Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif]By Barbara Opall-Rome
Space News Correspondent
[/FONT][/FONT][FONT=arial,helvetica]posted: 13 July 2007
01:56 pm ET
[/FONT]
TEL AVIV, Israel - Israel's Ministry of Defense and some of the country's leading industry executives repeatedly squashed Venezuelan bids to buy high-resolution commercial satellite imagery. According to a lawsuit filed July 2 in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan, Venezuela's potential procurement deals were sabatoged twice and more recently a personal offer by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to buy a significant equity stake in ImageSat International (ISI), a local satellite operating firm, was ignored.
In their lawsuit, the ISI minority shareholders accuse major investors and the firm's current management of "spurning lucrative ... opportunities in Venezuela in order to devalue the company [Imagesat]."
The plaintiffs represent a cross section of minority shareholders in ISI, including members of the founding management and some other former company employees. The plaintiffs note that they invested millions during "Imagesat's highest risk start-up and development stages and at times when the company was in financial crisis, for which they received common or preferred shares or bridge warrants."
Although Imagesat is a Netherlands Antilles company now headquartered in Israel, the plaintiffs contend they have standing in U.S. courts because the company regularly does business in New York.
Whole story
http://www.space.com/news/070713_israel_venezuala.html
[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif][FONT=Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif]By Barbara Opall-Rome
Space News Correspondent
[/FONT][/FONT][FONT=arial,helvetica]posted: 13 July 2007
01:56 pm ET
[/FONT]
TEL AVIV, Israel - Israel's Ministry of Defense and some of the country's leading industry executives repeatedly squashed Venezuelan bids to buy high-resolution commercial satellite imagery. According to a lawsuit filed July 2 in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan, Venezuela's potential procurement deals were sabatoged twice and more recently a personal offer by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to buy a significant equity stake in ImageSat International (ISI), a local satellite operating firm, was ignored.
In their lawsuit, the ISI minority shareholders accuse major investors and the firm's current management of "spurning lucrative ... opportunities in Venezuela in order to devalue the company [Imagesat]."
The plaintiffs represent a cross section of minority shareholders in ISI, including members of the founding management and some other former company employees. The plaintiffs note that they invested millions during "Imagesat's highest risk start-up and development stages and at times when the company was in financial crisis, for which they received common or preferred shares or bridge warrants."
Although Imagesat is a Netherlands Antilles company now headquartered in Israel, the plaintiffs contend they have standing in U.S. courts because the company regularly does business in New York.
Whole story
http://www.space.com/news/070713_israel_venezuala.html