RCG-Royal Caribbean Group and its subsidiary Silversea are suing the new Crystal Cruises' Senior VP of Global Sales (Matias Andres Lira) and Abercrombie & Kent USA (A&K).
RCG and Silversea accused Silversea's former executive Lira of "breaching his contract, fiduciary duties and the Florida Uniform Trade Secrets Act." They also accuse Crystal Cruises and A&K of interfering with Lira's contracts with Silversea.
RCG and Silversea are seeking USD 750,000 in damages and for Lira to honor a nondisclosure/noncompete agreement he had signed with Silversea.
The 137-page lawsuit was filed on August 31th in Miami-Dade County's 11th judicial court. Crystal Cruises, A&K USA, and Lira have yet to file the formal responses with the court.
The suit comes as the new Crystal Cruises and Silversea both prepare to launch ships formerly owned by the defunct Crystal, which ceased operations in January 2022.
Under new ownership by A&K USA, Crystal Cruises announced that it had acquired the vessels Crystal Serenity and Crystal Symphony in June 2022 and plans to deploy the boats in 2023-Q1 following drydock refurbishments.
Silversea announced in July it had acquired the superyacht Crystal Endeavor (now Silver Endeavour) which is due to launch in November.
In pursuit of the Crystal brand was Manfredi Lefebvre, who manages Heritage Group, an equity firm that owns Abercrombie & Kent. Lefebvre is the founder of Silversea, which he sold to RCG in 2020.