Two pilots have filed lawsuits alleging sexual harassment by the billionaire behind LaCroix sparkling water, claiming 82-year-old Nick A. Caporella inappropriately touched them on multiple trips while they were flying with him in the cockpit of his business jet. The allegations by the former employees, both men, were made in lawsuits filed in the past two years in Florida and name both the chief executive and National Beverage Corp. FIZZ 4.07% as defendants. Mr. Caporella is the chairman, chief executive and controlling shareholder of National Beverage, which has a market value of $5 billion, thanks to surging LaCroix sales. One lawsuit, filed in 2016, claimed that Caporella engaged in a "repeated pattern of unprovoked and unwanted sexual touching." Glenn Waldman, an attorney for Mr. Caporella and National Beverage, called the allegations false and “scurrilous.” The lawyer said the company’s management hired him to conduct an investigation and he determined the allegations were meritless. The other lawsuit, which was partly dismissed by a federal court citing jurisdiction, was refiled in December 2017 in Circuit Court in Broward County and is pending. Both pilots were hired in recent years to fly as second-in-command alongside Mr. Caporella, whom the company’s court documents described as an accomplished pilot. The second case, which alleges similar behavior, was filed in January 2017 against National Beverage, Caporella and Broad River Aviation Inc., which operates the jet used for National Beverage's business trips. North Carolina state records list Mr. Caporella as Broad River’s president. Related: #MeToo and #TimesUp have pushed 48% of companies to review pay policies 
 
 The lawsuit says Caporella's alleged behavior happened on 18 separate occasions and when Huenefeld complained he was told by his superior that he must allow and "put up with it." “There is no truth to any of the allegations and nothing remotely akin to the alleged events occurred,” the company said in a news release after The Wall Street Journal article was published online. That suit, brought against Caporella and National Beverage by Terence Huenefeld and his wife, Paula Huenefeld, sought damages for a hostile work environment, abuse and sexual battery. The second pilot, Vincent Citrullo, alleged in his lawsuit a similar pattern of behavior during more than a year flying alongside Mr. Caporella. The lawsuit claims that on 14 flights from March 2014 to July 2015, Mr. Caporella engaged in unwanted touching, including grabbing Mr. Citrullo under his armpit, under his thigh and moving his right hand up Mr. Citrullo’s left leg towards his genitals. It was definitely inappropriate.” 
 
 National Beverage was a distant competitor to bigger beverage companies until the recent success of LaCroix, a once-sleepy flavored seltzer brand that has been a hit with consumers as they turn away from diet soft drinks and sugary sodas. The two male pilots filed separate lawsuits in Florida against Nicholas Caporella, the 82-year-old CEO of Corporate Management Advisors Inc. Caporella's company operates National Beverage Corp., which makes LaCroix.
– National Beverage Corp. CEO Nick Caporella is 82 and still pilots the company's business jet—but two other pilots say he can't keep his hands to himself when he's in the cockpit. The male pilots have filed lawsuits in the last two years accusing Caporella of "unwanted touching" on some 30 trips between 2014 and 2016, the Wall Street Journal reports. One pilot, whose lawsuit was filed in 2016 and settled last year, said that on 18 flights, Caporella had engaged in "repeated unjustified, unwarranted, and uninvited grabbing, rubbing and groping" of his leg in a sexual manner. The suits named National Beverage, maker of LaCroix sparkling water, as a co-defendant. In a separate lawsuit, another pilot accused Caporella of "unprovoked and unwanted sexually oriented touching" on more than a dozen occasions, CNN reports. That lawsuit was filed last year and is still pending. Lee Schillinger, the pilots' attorney, says Caporella pays his co-pilots a generous salary. "He reaches over and grabs his co-pilot," Schillinger tells the Journal. "He’s trying to prove that he’s in control." Glenn Waldman, a lawyer for Caporella and National Beverage, says the accusations have been investigated and are false and "scurrilous." He accuses the pilots of targeting the CEO because of his age and wealth, which has increased significantly as LaCroix sales have surged in recent years.