Well, yes. He’s a billionaire. Billionaires are all evil.
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Sir Ben Ainslie claims he was told Sir Jim Ratcliffe would “burn your house down” unless he handed over the team’s assets and intellectual property to the British billionaire’s Ineos empire.
The “hostile” threat was allegedly delivered by Jean-Claude Blanc and Rob Nevin, the chief executive and chairman of Ineos Sport, in Ainslie’s Barcelona office, in October 2024, just hours before Ainslie was due to try to make history in the America’s Cup against New Zealand.
Britain has never won the America’s Cup in its 175-year history and it was their first Cup match in 60 years. Ratcliffe, whose worth is valued at more than £13.5bn (NZ$31bn), backed Ainslie’s campaign by pumping millions into the project to try and aid that effort.
We have a phrase at Ineos: ‘scorched earth’,” Ainslie claims Nevin warned him. “It means that if you don’t give Jim what he wants, he will burn your house down.”
The claim is one of several extraordinary allegations made by the defence against a High Court action pursued by Ratcliffe’s Ineos, which is attempting to force Ainslie’s Athena Racing team to hand over the “£180m boat” they built together for the last America’s Cup.
Ineos filed their claim in April, stating that “having provided approximately £174 million of funding for the design, construction and testing of a racing yacht and related assets, the Claimant is entitled under the Agreement to ownership of those assets following its expiry. Wrongfully and in breach of contract, however, the Defendant has refused to transfer these assets to the Claimant and has wrongly disputed its obligation to do so.”
The defence filing, which The Telegraph has seen, was submitted last Thursday at the High Court. It lays bare the extent to which relations between Britain’s most successful sailor and Manchester United’s co-owner deteriorated during and after the 37th America’s Cup (AC37).
Athena Racing accuses Ratcliffe and Ineos of:
Blowing up their relationship on the day of the opening America’s Cup race in October 2024
Applying “undue commercial pressure” with “hostile negotiating tactics” including a threat to “burn your house down”
“Reprehensible and improper” behaviour both “during the term of their Agreement and subsequently”
“False imprisonment” after allegedly locking Ainslie and his Athena colleagues inside their Northamptonshire offices after the two entities split
Breaching a non-compete clause by announcing plans to challenge for the 38th America’s Cup next year with former technical partners Mercedes F1
Procuring the Mercedes F1 team to breach their contract by locking Ainslie and his staff out of their own IT system and changing domain names
Denying them access to a simulator at their factory.
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Well, yes. He’s a billionaire. Billionaires are all evil.
Sir Ben Ainslie claims he was told Sir Jim Ratcliffe would “burn your house down” unless he handed over the team’s assets and intellectual property to the British billionaire’s Ineos empire.
The “hostile” threat was allegedly delivered by Jean-Claude Blanc and Rob Nevin, the chief executive and chairman of Ineos Sport, in Ainslie’s Barcelona office, in October 2024, just hours before Ainslie was due to try to make history in the America’s Cup against New Zealand.
Britain has never won the America’s Cup in its 175-year history and it was their first Cup match in 60 years. Ratcliffe, whose worth is valued at more than £13.5bn (NZ$31bn), backed Ainslie’s campaign by pumping millions into the project to try and aid that effort.
We have a phrase at Ineos: ‘scorched earth’,” Ainslie claims Nevin warned him. “It means that if you don’t give Jim what he wants, he will burn your house down.”
The claim is one of several extraordinary allegations made by the defence against a High Court action pursued by Ratcliffe’s Ineos, which is attempting to force Ainslie’s Athena Racing team to hand over the “£180m boat” they built together for the last America’s Cup.
Ineos filed their claim in April, stating that “having provided approximately £174 million of funding for the design, construction and testing of a racing yacht and related assets, the Claimant is entitled under the Agreement to ownership of those assets following its expiry. Wrongfully and in breach of contract, however, the Defendant has refused to transfer these assets to the Claimant and has wrongly disputed its obligation to do so.”
The defence filing, which The Telegraph has seen, was submitted last Thursday at the High Court. It lays bare the extent to which relations between Britain’s most successful sailor and Manchester United’s co-owner deteriorated during and after the 37th America’s Cup (AC37).
Athena Racing accuses Ratcliffe and Ineos of:
Blowing up their relationship on the day of the opening America’s Cup race in October 2024
Applying “undue commercial pressure” with “hostile negotiating tactics” including a threat to “burn your house down”
“Reprehensible and improper” behaviour both “during the term of their Agreement and subsequently”
“False imprisonment” after allegedly locking Ainslie and his Athena colleagues inside their Northamptonshire offices after the two entities split
Breaching a non-compete clause by announcing plans to challenge for the 38th America’s Cup next year with former technical partners Mercedes F1
Procuring the Mercedes F1 team to breach their contract by locking Ainslie and his staff out of their own IT system and changing domain names
Denying them access to a simulator at their factory.
Wilcox…..