Dirty Tricks (scandal)

The "Dirty Tricks" scandal was a series of concerted campaigns by British Airways (BA) in the 1990s seeking to undermine their rival, Virgin Atlantic.

Concerned by the prospect of an upcoming challenger, Lord King, Chairman of British Airways, told his chief executive "do something about Branson".

[8] In response, BA created "Operation Barbara" releasing a dossier detailing alleged negative aspects of Virgin's business.

[9] BA also hired private investigators to search through the rubbish bins of Virgin staff and journalists who had spoken to Branson.

[9][15] Branson stated he had to sell his Virgin Records business for $1 billion in order to pay for the lawsuit, something which he said he wept at having to do.

Virgin's barrister George Carman argued against it and the judge dismissed the motion but allowed the consultant to file his own statement.

[9] The court ruled BA and Lord King had to release a joint statement apologising for the "dirty tricks" campaign.

At the suggestion of a British Coca-Cola executive, Coke assembled "SWAT teams" to fly to the UK on a hired DC-10 from Atlanta International Airport with suitcases of money for a campaign.

[24] Later the Coke executive worked for Lloyds TSB and became the manager of Virgin Group's bank accounts to which Branson, when he found out from her at a dinner, said "I wasn't sure whether to strangle her or not" but forgave her for it.