American International Group Inc. is due to receive $72 million in payments under a settlement of the lawsuit against Air Lease Corp., the jet lessor founded by Steven Udvar-Hazy.
Air Lease will make two equal payments, the first by June 30 and the second by Sept. 30, according to a regulatory filing Thursday by the Los Angeles-based company. Air Lease said the accord was reached Wednesday with AIG, former subsidiary International Lease Finance Corp. and that unit’s new parent, AerCap Holdings NV.
The settlement is “intended solely as a compromise of disputed claims, and that no party admits any wrongdoing or liability with respect to any matter alleged in the litigation,” Air Lease said.
AIG filed a complaint in 2012 in Los Angeles accusing Udvar-Hazy and 10 other former ILFC executives of breach of fiduciary duty and stealing trade secrets, among other claims, when they left the company in 2010. Udvar-Hazy founded ILFC in 1973, helping create the modern aircraft-leasing industry, and sold it in 1990 to AIG. AerCap acquired ILFC last year.
The settlement covers all aspects of the case, Air Lease said Thursday. Air Lease filed a counterclaim against AIG and ILFC in 2013.
In 2012, less than a month after the initial complaint was filed, Udvar-Hazy denied the suggestion that he had misappropriated trade secrets in setting up a rival firm to ILFC.
“I want to make it clear that there is no secret sauce in the aircraft leasing business,” Hazy told analysts on a conference call. “ALC’s success is a result of a strong management team with extensive experience and solid industry relationships.”
The settlement couldn’t immediately be confirmed in Los Angeles state court records.
The case is AIG v. Air Lease, BC483370, Superior Court of California (Los Angeles).
–With assistance from Edvard Pettersson in Federal court in Los Angeles and Michael Hytha in San Francisco.