September 23, 2025
Richard Kane launched Verijet in 2020 using the Cirrus SF50, growing it to a top-15 operator before being hit with multiple lawsuits.
Richard Kane, the founder and CEO of Verijet, passed away on September 13, 2025.
The company had not made an announcement, and there is no notice of Kane’s death on the company’s website.
However, an email from his wife, Allison Kane, about his passing, was apparently distributed on Sept. 19, 2025.
Kane confirmed her husband’s death during a telephone interview this evening.
She said he suffered a massive heart attack while on a bicycle ride.
He typically walked three to four miles a day, and did bike rides several times a week, she added.
The fast-growing, very light jet operator took off in 2020 and, by 2022, was the 30th-largest charter/fractional provider in the U.S.
Kane envisioned expanding Verijet with hundreds of single-engine Cirrus SF50 jets.
He quickly expanded from a service area in Florida and the Southeastern U.S. to the West Coast, Texas, and the Northeast.
Hourly rates started at just $3,000.
By the end of 2023, Verijet had moved to the 13th spot.
At the same time, he ran into legal and boardroom headwinds.
Kane briefly exited in 2023 only to return months later.
Current FAA data show that as of mid-September, Verijet had three Cirrus jets on its charter certificate.
However, FlightAware shows that only one of the three SF50s had flown in the past three months.
N35VJ last flew on Aug. 8, 2025, from Charlotte/Monroe Executive Airport in North Carolina to Kissimmee Gateway Airport in Florida.
At its peak, the company operated approximately 20 of the small jets.
Verijet was the subject of multiple lawsuits from customers, lessors, and former employees, alleging that it failed to pay bills or deliver promised jet card and ad hoc charter flights.
Most of the cases resulted in default judgments as Verijet failed to respond to the complaints.
In April of this year, Verijet was hit with a $325,000 default judgment from a jet card client.
Charter broker Jettly had obtained two default judgments against Verijet earlier that month.
That followed a $3.4 million judgment at the end of 2024 in favor of Vision Leasing 241, LLC.
Last month, a former employee, Brandyn Strawder, sought a default judgment for more than $100,000 in back wages and penalties.
In August, GHO Aviation sued Kane and Verijet, alleging false representations and seeking the return of $150,000 that it had invested in the operator in September 2024.
Kane had claimed Verijet had or was close to securing new financing on several occasions.
Last December, he said Verijet was pivoting to the aeromedical market.
Kane said the company had entered a partnership with Buckeye Transplant Services, which operates 65 transplant centers in the U.S.
He also said there is an MOU with a family office representing First Nations in Canada to support medical flights to support indigenous rural populations.
When he returned in November 2023, Kane claimed he had secured $85 million.
At the time, he said, “Solaino’s initial infusion of $85 million of working capital into Verijet empowers and advances our efforts in the journey toward decarbonizing and democratizing private travel and business expansion.”
In February 2023, Verijet announced plans for a SPAC-merger-based IPO.
Before launching Verijet, Kane had founded companies in telecom and later in flight scheduling optimization for private jet fleet operators.
In her email, Allison Kane wrote, “I remain fully engaged in guiding our path forward.”
However, she says she is currently only a shareholder and not involved in the business.
She wrote, “In the days before his passing, Richard was in excellent spirits, making remarkable progress in advancing key partnerships for Verijet, work that we are actively continuing.”
She called her late husband “a generous man who chose to be an organ donor, and his legacy of giving will live on through the lives of others.”
The Circuit Court of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit In And For Miami-Dade County, Florida, appointed a receiver for Verijet on June 18, 2025, according to court filings.
Miami lawyer David Mandel was appointed as the receiver, putting him in control of Verijet.
In its order, Judge Migna Sanchez-Llorens wrote, “Verijet, Inc. and Richard Kane knowingly or recklessly failed to provide complete and current information and records to which the Judgment Creditor was entitled.”
Kane was found in civil contempt and ordered to pay a fine of $58,465, according to the order.
At various points, Verijet had offices or facilities in Opa Locka, Boca Raton, and Kissimmee.
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