Satellite telecommunications firm Kiskadee Communications (Bermuda) Ltd is suing two officers of fellow Bermuda-based company ProtoStar Ltd for $18.25 million in compensatory damages.Kiskadee's principal shareholders are listed as Bermudian businessman Jeffrey Conyers and David Mallof, of Washington, DC, according to the complaint, which was filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of California.The OffshoreAlert online newsletter reported that Kiskadee's complaint was lodged against California resident Philip Father and Maryland resident Eugene Cacciamani, who served as chairman and chief technology officer, respectively, of ProtoStar.Kiskadee had formed a joint venture with ProtoStar, aiming to utilise one of Bermuda's potentially lucrative satellite location slots, which were granted to Bermuda in 1983 by the United Nations and International Telecommunications Union.The complaint reveals Kiskadee was granted an exclusivity agreement on a satellite slot by the Bermuda Government. But after ProtoStar filed for bankruptcy and its joint venture with Kiskadee failed, Government terminated the exclusivity deal in June 2010.“This is a civil action for damages arising from the breach of fiduciary duties, fraud, negligence and related unlawful conduct of defendants in their role as directors and officers of ProtoStar Ltd. and affiliates, brought by an injured minority shareholder,” the complaint states.“Kiskadee Communications (Bermuda) Ltd. formed a joint venture with ProtoStar in October 2008 to implement Kiskadee's extremely valuable exclusive right to commercialise a satellite orbital location, positioned over the center of North America, that is controlled under international treaty and assignment by the Government of Bermuda.“The joint venture entity, also incorporated in Bermuda and known as ProtoStar Kiskadee (Bermuda) Ltd., is 75 percent owned and controlled by ProtoStar.”The Mid-Ocean News revealed in 2005 that Kiskadee had started talks with Government over the Island's satellite slot in July 2001.The complaint adds: “Unknown to Kiskadee before or in October 2008, however, ProtoStar's failing financial condition, severe operational and cash flow restrictions imposed by creditors, and related corporate financing constraints made it impossible for the company to act in a commercially appropriate manner on the unique satellite opportunity made available by Kiskadee.“These facts were intentionally and fraudulently concealed by Defendants, including in the period leading to ProtoStar's July 2009 bankruptcy filing, during which ProtoStar was insolvent, and were used unfairly to convert the business opportunity presented by Kiskadee for Defendants' own competitive and financial benefit.”Kiskadee claims that ProtoStar failed to disclose the full truth about its financial situation.The complaint adds: “The corporate financing and performance facts shockingly withheld from Kiskadee which would land ProtoStar in bankruptcy liquidation within a year of entering into the Joint Venture with Plaintiff, made it impossible as a business matter for ProtoStar to meet its obligation to ‘use all commercially reasonable efforts to undertake and complete' certain licensing milestones including, at a minimum, submitting a form application for the ‘issuance to' the Joint Venture of a licence for or ‘the formal assignment' of the satellite orbital slot from the Government of Bermuda to the Joint Venture.”The court documents go on to reveal that ProtoStar never provided any funding to the joint venture and was unable “to complete and submit even a rudimentary application to the Government of Bermuda”.“As a result, the Government terminated Kiskadee's exclusivity in June 2010 and the valuable opportunity to commercialise the orbital slot, contributed by Kiskadee to the Joint Venture, has expired.“Only later, after ProtoStar's July 2009 bankruptcy, did Defendant Father admit that the deal with Kiskadee should never have been pursued due to the investor restrictions that constrained Proto Star. This lawsuit therefore demands compensatory damages from Defendants personally for their fraudulent, unfair, disloyal, deceptive and negligent actions, in an amount no less than $18,250,000.00, plus restitution, disgorgement of profits, punitive damages, attorneys' fees and interest.”