Roel Pieper - Eclipse Aviation

Eclipse Aviation

In 2003, Pieper started a new venture involving Very Light Jets (VLJ), in cooperation with Albuquerque, New Mexico-based Eclipse Aviation Corporation.

In 2003, Pieper together with a Russian businessman Daniel Bolotin started the joint venture investment business creating a Netherlands-based company, called European Technology and Investment Research Center (or ETIRC BV). The main project of ETIRC was ETIRC Aviation, sought to establish an Air Taxi network for Europe, Turkey and Russia and a second manufacturing location for the Eclipse 500 jet in Russia for the European market. In July 2008, ETIRC Aviation, based in Luxembourg, which by then had become Eclipse Aviation's largest shareholder, ousted Eclipse Aviation founder Vern Raburn from his position as CEO, and Pieper took over the job of acting CEO for Eclipse Corporation on request of the shareholders and bondholders.

In the autumn of 2008, after Pieper had decided to raise the price of the Eclipse 500 aircraft substantially, several Eclipse customers sued Eclipse for the return of their deposits, claiming they had waited years for the delivery of their Eclipse 500 jets. After the collapse of the financial markets in autumn of 2008, the company Eclipse needed to be restructured and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, with the stated plan that a new company, headed by Pieper, would buy the assets of Eclipse and continue manufacturing. Pieper attempted to secure the necessary funds for this acquisition, but was unsuccessful largely due to the economic downturn, which led to several potential investors bowing out at the last moment. Eclipse Aviation ran out of money in mid-February 2009 and ceased operations and laid off its remaining 850 employees. On February 25, a group of creditors petitioned the Delaware bankruptcy court to convert Eclipse's bankruptcy to Chapter 7 liquidation. Soon thereafter the board of directors (including Pieper) acknowledged the company had no other options but to file for Chapter 7, effectively ending the company's 10-year run, during which it spent an estimated $2 billion in investments and loans. Various reports following the Chapter 7 filing of the company insinuated financial problems for Pieper including an email from Pieper himself

On 7 April 2009, following the Chapter 7 filing of Eclipse Aviation, ETIRC BV in the Netherlands also declared bankruptcy. The Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant reported that Pieper had invested US$146 million in Eclipse through ETIRC. Roel Pieper has two lawsuits pending on the demise of ETIRC BV. The first case led by a group of consultants who claim to not have been paid for six months was lost. including a delay and review of a case by a legal firm that specialises in take-overs and bankruptcy claims, and Al Mann, who had Roel Pieper sign a 10 million collateral before he would invest 20 million in Eclipse. Al Mann and Roel Pieper have subsequently settled out of court

This investment was done with non-collateral US$150 million credit of Russian "Sviaz-bank". The Russian newspaper Vedomosti reported that this credit became later an object of an investigation in Russia, of which Pieper was not a part.

At the same time he was fighting to save Eclipse, Pieper was investing tens of millions of dollars in a Russian technology to extract diesel fuel from coal. That project enabled him to attract Russian interest in Eclipse. The Liquid to Coal project is on hold and will restart when oil prices have reached prices again above 100 dollars per barrel.

Any venture capital investor is expected to have some of its investments fail, and Pieper has been able to keep a good set of results between failures and successes. Various successful companies include Veritas Software, Netwise, Quokka Sports, Google, Tivo, Netscape, General Instrument, Lost Boys, and various others. Some failures include a magazine, Opinio, much older projects such as a web site, Tradingcars.com, and the telecommunications company Stonehenge. Efforts to start MyGuide, a company specializing in GPS navigation units and meant to compete with TomTom, also failed. Roel Pieper has been held accountable by the receivership of MyGuide for the lack of an administration, a coherent strategy and inferior products. There is currently a claim of 2 million Euros pending, which Pieper claims to be fraudulent and erroneous.