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OneWorld allows Reeves to testify
AUCKLAND, New Zealand -- Former OneWorld employee Sean Reeves has been allowed to testify at the America's Cup Arbitration Panel despite a permanent injunction banning him from revealing team secrets. The panel is holding a special meeting at the weekend in Auckland to hear allegations by Italian semifinalists Prada and eliminated U.S. syndicate Team Dennis Conner that OneWorld used design secrets stolen from America's Cup holder Team New Zealand. The hearing will rule if OneWorld can progress to the semifinals which start on December 9 when they are due to meet Prada. In the other semifinal Swiss team Alinghi will race Oracle BMW Racing. OneWorld syndicate spokesman Bob Ratliffe said on Wednesday that an undertaking had been given that Reeves could participate at the hearings without fear of being pursued in the U.S. courts by OneWorld Challenge. OneWorld made the undertaking to lawyers acting for Prada and Team Dennis Conner. The allegations rely heavily on affidavits prepared by Reeves. "In fact, we want Reeves to testify at the hearing," Ratliffe said. "We want to give him the freedom for those two days to answer questions and give testimony, but obviously that has to be within the proper scope of the enquiry." OneWorld has rejected all the allegations, maintaining that the one race penalty set by the panel in August for admitted breaches of the rules has already been paid. Reeves, a former Team New Zealand rules adviser, was instrumental in recruiting personnel and helping set up OneWorld after the 2000 America's Cup. As part of their on-going legal battles, OneWorld has had a permanent injunction issued in the U.S. courts preventing Reeves from breaching confidentiality agreements that were entered into when he worked for the syndicate. OneWorld has filed counter-affidavits from 14 members of the team. Among those who have prepared affidavits are OneWorld's founder, Seattle telecommunications billionaire Craig McCaw. Designers Laurie Davidson, who worked for Team New Zealand in 1995 and 2000, Bruce Nelson, formerly with AmericaOne and Phil Kaiko, formerly with America True, have also made affidavits, as have skipper Peter Gilmour, syndicate head Gary Wright and former Team New Zealand sailor Jeremy Scantlebury. If OneWorld was disqualified the Louis Vuitton Cup could become a scheduling nightmare. The semifinals are scheduled to start on Monday, but a ruling against OneWorld would not automatically mean that the team they beat 4-0 in the quarterfinal repechage, Team Dennis Conner, would automatically take the vacant spot against Prada. Sweden's Victory Challenge, who lost 4-0 to Prada in the repechage, have a better win-lose record than Team Dennis Conner in the round robins. Also all the other eliminated challengers could claim redress for earlier races against OneWorld and demand a resail of the whole series. The first team to be eliminated Italian Mascalzone Latino and Victory have already packed up their boats and gone home. Only Team Dennis Conner, the French Defi Areva and the British GBR team still have their boats ready for racing. One solution for the panel could be to order a sail-off for the last semifinal place between the remaining quarterfinalists, -- GBR, Team Dennis Conner and Le Defi Areva -- even though this might mean a rescheduling of the remainder of the Louis Vuitton Cup series.
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