The five businesses and 21 Chinese tourists who have filed a $50-million racketeering lawsuit in federal court against the owner and officials of XTRA Airways and several others now want to drop their complaint. <\/p>\n
The plaintiffs, through lawyer Robert O\u2019Connor, filed yesterday a notice of voluntary dismissal of their lawsuit before the U.S. District Court for the NMI.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Connor asked the court to dismiss the case without prejudice, which means the plaintiff may re-file the lawsuit in the future.<\/p>\n
They accused XTRA Airways officials and others of allegedly engaging in a scam by pretending to participate in a plan to bring tourists from China to Saipan via charter aircraft, but deliberately sabotaged the plan by failing to take the steps necessary for it to succeed.<\/p>\n
The five complaining businesses are Dream Pacific Aviation Services Hong Kong Ltd.; Evelyn U.S.A. Corp., owner of Impression Tour; Bright Investment LLC, owner of Saipan Restaurant; Rionda Co. Ltd., owner of New Shin Restaurant; and BW International, owner of BW Car Rental.<\/p>\n
Eleven of the 21 Chinese are \u201cstranded\u201d tourists, while the rest are intending tourists who had booked and\/or paid for flights on XTRA Airways charter flights from China to Saipan and back to China, according to the complaint.<\/p>\n
The plaintiffs\u2019 counsels are O\u2019Connor and the Torres Brothers law firm.<\/p>\n
The defendants are Frank J. Visconti, Nicolas Finazzo, and Andrew Lotter, who are all citizens and residents of Florida. They allegedly authorized and participated in the scam.<\/p>\n
The defendants have denied the allegations. <\/p>\n
Visconti was president and chief executive officer of XTRA Airways. Finazzo was a director of XTRA Airways and AerSale Inc. He was also chief executive officer of Aersale Inc. and a member of Aerline Holdings LLC. Lotter was chief operating officer and director of operations for XTRA Airways.<\/p>\n
Also sued are TEM Enterprises Inc., AerSale Inc.; and AerLine Holdings LLC. The companies are all based in Coral Gables, Florida.<\/p>\n
Sean Frink and Catherine J. Cachero of the Marianas Legal Strategy Group LLC serve as local counsels for the defendants\u2019 lawyers, Matthew C. Dates and Andrea N. Nathan. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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