A 50-year-old company that leases hangers and office space to more than 100 tenants at the Long Beach and Van Nuys airports has fired its longtime, nationally known chief executive officer, accusing him in a blistering lawsuit of using its employees and resources to enrich his competing consulting firm.
Curt Castagna, employed by Aeroplex/Aerolease Group since the early 1980s, breached his fiduciary duty and engaged in unfair competition by forming a separate consulting firm, Aeroplex Group Partners (AGP), according to the suit filed last week in Los Angeles Superior Court.
The complaint from Aeroplex/Aerolease, owned by the Milton Widelitz and George Arkin families, seeks unspecified damages.
Castagna, who is also president of the National Air Transportation Association based in Washington, D.C., and the Long Beach and Van Nuys airport associations, apparently didn’t take it well when members of the Widelitz and Arkin families fired him on May 6.
“Castagna became visibly upset and aggressive upon hearing that he had been terminated from his positions with the Aeroplex/Aerolease Group,” the suit states. “Although plaintiff’s members informed Castagna that they desired to work together towards a peaceful separation, Castagna suggested that he would sue plaintiffs and would use plaintiffs’ funds to pay for his lawsuit.”
The decision to terminate Castagna wasn’t easy, according to Stuart Pfeifer, a spokesperson for Aeroplex/Aerolease.
“Curt had been with Aeroplex/Aerolease quite a long time, and so there was a level of trust there,” Pfeifer said. “But the partners wanted someone dedicated to their entities and not someone who kept adding outside interests.”
National Air Transportation Association officials declined to comment on the lawsuit or Castagna’s firing. Officials with the Long Beach Airport Association could not be reached for comment. Van Nuys Airport Association officials did not immediately return emails and phone calls seeking…
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