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ARG/US Resorts to Legal Mudslinging Against CharterX, Wyvern & Former ARG/US
Employee
12-Sep-2006
CharterX Corp. announced today that shortly after its acquisition of Wyvern
Consulting, ARG/US filed a lawsuit in Franklin County, N.C., against both
companies, and Cliff Maurer, a former ARG/US employee and more recently, a
part-time contractor. The parties plan to answer the suit by Sept. 21.

In its complaint, ARG/US makes wild and unsubstantiated claims that Mr.
Maurer inappropriately logged on to an ARG/US computer. CharterX has
vehemently denied these claims. Furthermore, CharterX has evidence of
ARG/US'
Executive Vice President Mark Fischer, personally attempting to gain
unlawful access to CharterX's systems just a few weeks ago.

Maurer said, "I, CharterX or Wyvern are in no need of any information from
ARG/US. I departed ARG/US and joined the CharterX/Wyvern team, when it was
clear that CharterX and Wyvern had a great deal of development underway, and
a vision for delivering the next generation of Aviation Safety Intelligence
products for the private aviation industry."

Paul Goodman of New York-based Cyruli Shanks & Zizmor LLP, counsel on behalf
of CharterX Corp., Wyvern and Maurer, described ARG/US' claims, "baseless
and completely lacking any evidence that Maurer provided any ARG/US
information to CharterX or Wyvern or that any ARG/US data whatsoever has
been used in either CharterX's or Wyvern's businesses."

In Fischer's affidavit accompanying the complaint, he states, "Wyvern
Consulting Ltd. is ARG/US' only direct competitor for the services ARG/US
offers in connection with its CHEQ Reports."

CharterX President Jim Betlyon said that once "CharterX acquired Wyvern, it
was clear that ARG/US' competitive position with Wyvern would take a
negative turn."

"This is just the latest manifestation of ARG/US' lack of confidence in its
ability to compete for clients using legitimate business practices.
Resorting to using the courtroom and legal system on the field of
competition is a poor practice," says Betlyon, a computer software industry
veteran, who has built leading technology companies that have been acquired
by Adobe Systems and 3M. "We were in development of technology for aviation
safety for more than 18 months before we acquired Wyvern on June 16.

"We've assured ARG/US several times, we do not have, have no desire of, and
if ever offered, we would refuse any information or data from ARG/US.
Moreover, the vast majority of ARG/US' data is free to the public, available
from both the Federal Aviation Administration and the National
Transportation Safety Board and other public sources, or is provided
directly by an air charter operator. However, CharterX maintains broad
information about the charter industry around the world, far beyond the
information ARG/US focuses on."

Wyvern Founder and President Walter D. Lamon points out why ARG/US' claims
have "no merit."

"ARG/US' claims are 100 percent disingenuous," he said. "We started the
collection, monitoring and reporting of aviation safety information more
than 15 years ago. We developed and delivered the first aviation-safety
database in our industry. Over this time, ARG/US hired a former Wyvern
programmer to develop its system, several of our auditors, and mimicked
various Wyvern products and programs. We chose not to file a lawsuit as it
would be unproductive for Wyvern; we've always been confident in our
abilities to offer the aviation community in-depth safety intelligence,
which has nothing in common with that of ARG/US."

Betlyon added that it's unfortunate that ARG/US has chosen to use these
techniques to replace fair and honest competition.

"We are proud to admit that we put a great deal of energy and innovation
into building a system that is the ultimate resource to the air charter
industry. Everybody in the industry uses CharterX; we handle over 3,000
charter trip requests per day, he said.

Source: http://www.charterx.com/news.aspx#2330