Intelsat alleges fraud at OneWeb/SoftBank

A potentially devastating dispute has broken out between two former “cooperation” joint-venture partners: Intelsat has filed a lawsuit against OneWeb and its financial backer Japan’s SoftBank.

The writ alleges that the OneWeb and SoftBank conspired together in stealing confidential information, because – the writ states – SoftBank no longer believed in the OneWeb project and was seeking to protect its previous investment in OneWeb,

Somewhat bizarrely SoftBank had attempted to buy Intelsat, while Intelsat is a modest investor in the OneWeb project.

The action commenced on last week in New York’s Supreme Court.