New Details Emerge About the Employee Lawsuit Against Tim Sheehy
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, May 28, 2024
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Daily Montanan: Tim Sheehy’s former employees sue over alleged breach of contract
Helena, MT – Montanans across the state are reading about how Tim Sheehy “allegedly forc[ed] two former employees to sell off stock that was part of their compensation package before the company sold a subsidiary for hundreds of millions of dollars,” resulting in a lawsuit against him and his brother.
Reporting from Daily Montanan highlights how the plaintiffs claim the Sheehy brothers “improperly forced them to sell or convert their vested stock ownership in the company — which the suit claims could be worth millions of dollars.”
Read more about the lawsuit below:
Daily Montanan: Tim Sheehy’s former employees sue over alleged breach of contract
May 24, 2024
By Blair Miller
Tim Sheehy and his aerial firefighting and surveillance company’s former parent company have been accused of breach of contract by allegedly forcing two former employees to sell off stock that was part of their compensation package before the company sold a subsidiary for hundreds of millions of dollars and then took Bridger Aerospace public in 2023.
The attorneys for the two men claim that Bridger and the Sheehy brothers improperly forced them to sell or convert their vested stock ownership in the company — which the suit claims could be worth millions of dollars — failed to distribute proceeds from the sale of the drone company or from the public offering, and did not provide them with accounting or ownership records.
The lawsuit claims that if the plaintiffs can force the company to turn over its accounting, it will show “that the Sheehy Defendants created Bridger Management with the intention of perpetrating wrongful conduct upon the minority owners such as Plaintiffs.”
The plaintiffs’ attorneys are also asking for damages incurred; recovery of lost distributions; and for their ownership interest to be paid out “as a result of defendants’ wrongful conduct and breaches of fiduciary duty.”
The lawsuit says Tim and Matthew Sheehy had told both men their salaries were “insufficient compensation” for the work they were doing and had them accept reduced salaries in exchange for ownership interests in the parent company at the time, Bridger Management.
The lawsuit claims that the Sheehys told both men not to discuss their ownership shares with other employees or they would lose them and their jobs.
But the lawsuit claims the two men were given murky information about the agreement and their shares despite the Sheehys and company repeatedly telling them “that their ownership interests were increasing, that the interests were ‘worth millions,’ and that the plaintiffs would be ‘taken care of.’”
The suit says Irr called Tim Sheehy and asked for more information on why he would have to sell his stock, the basis for the valuation, and how much ownership he had, but was not given any of the information.
The suit also claims Tim and Matthew Sheehy breached their fiduciary duties to Wantulok and Irr in order to “maximize their own financial gain at the expense of minority owners.”
As a political newcomer who has leaned heavily on his status as a veteran and successful Montana small business owner, the lawsuit and public filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission have provided more insight into how Sheehy built his business into one that employs around 150 people and brought in $67 million in revenue last year, though it also reported a $77 million net loss and concerns about being able to make certain debt payments this year.
Sheehy has criticized news outlets that have reported on the company’s finances in recent months and said they were harming employees and shareholders of the company.
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