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. 
 
 Mr. Caporella, a rare CEO who also pilots the corporate jet, and the company have denied the allegations in court documents. The suits claim the unwanted touching occurred on more than 30 trips from 2014 to 2016. 
 
 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. He said the plaintiffs were targeting the CEO because he is wealthy and in his 80s. 
 
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 Mr. Waldman said he spoke with other pilots who flew with Mr. Caporella and they said they had never seen such behavior. “I talked to all of the former pilots going back decades,” Mr. Waldman said. “Nothing like this ever happened.” 
 
 In court filings, Mr. Caporella and National Beverage denied any inappropriate touching occurred, writing in separate responses to both lawsuits that “any contact would be the equivalent of an innocuous pat on the back or handshake after a completed flight.” In court documents, the company says both pilots left their positions because of poor performance. 
 
 One lawsuit, filed in December 2016 in federal court in the Southern District of Florida, was settled in January 2018, according to court records. Terms weren’t disclosed. 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 men were paid by Broad River Aviation Inc., the company that operates the jet used for National Beverage business trips, according to the lawsuits and federal and corporate records. North Carolina state records list Mr. Caporella as Broad River’s president. 
 
 The two pilots complained to executives at the aviation company and National Beverage about Mr. Caporella’s alleged inappropriate touching, but the behavior continued, according to the lawsuits. 
 
 The pilots’ attorney, Lee Schillinger, said Mr. Caporella pays his crew a generous salary. One of his clients had previously been working three jobs to make the salary that Mr. Caporella offered, according to court documents. “He reaches over and grabs his co-pilot,” said Mr. Schillinger. “He’s trying to prove that he’s in control.” 
 
 Mr. Schillinger confirmed one case has been settled. 
 
 Mr. Waldman said the settlement was “de minimis” and covered “modest wage claims.” He said he reported findings of his investigation to National Beverage’s senior management and didn’t know if the board had voted on the settlement. “It would be immaterial from a board point of view,” he said. 
 
 “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. Samuel Hathorn, chairman of National Beverage’s audit committee, added that “the board is aware of the allegations and knows them to be untrue, based on our knowledge of Mr. Caporella and the investigation that was conducted.” 
 
 The business jet, a twin-engine Falcon 2000EX, flew regularly during the period in question from National Beverage’s home city of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., to destinations including Portsmouth, N.H., Oakland, Calif., and Los Cabos, Mexico, according to federal flight records. The travel matches the dates of trips alleged in the two suits. 
 
 One lawsuit was filed by pilot Terence Huenefeld and his wife. Mr. Huenefeld, who spent about five months working for Mr. Caporella, accused the CEO of unwanted touching on 18 flights between March and July 2016, according to court documents. 
 
 The lawsuit alleged Mr. Caporella engaged in “repeated unjustified, unwarranted and uninvited grabbing, rubbing and groping of Terry’s leg in a sexual manner, reaching up towards Terry’s sexual organs.” 
 
 Mr. Huenefeld withdrew all of his allegations against Mr. Caporella as “factually unsupportable” as part of the settlement, according to a document dated Feb. 2 and provided by Mr. Waldman. Mr. Huenefeld couldn’t be reached for comment. 
 
 Mr. Waldman said his investigation into the second lawsuit is ongoing and depositions are scheduled for later this month. 
 
 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. 
 
 Reached by phone Tuesday, Mr. Citrullo said he stands by his allegations “100%. 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. National Beverage acquired it in 1996 and successfully relaunched it with neon-colored packaging, targeting Perrier drinkers with a lower-priced alternative. 
 
 Mr. Caporella, who has run National Beverage since 1985, owns 73.5% of the beverage maker’s shares, according to the company’s 2017 proxy statement. 
 
 Under a structure that has been in place for decades, Mr. Caporella and some other top executives aren’t direct employees of National Beverage, even as they serve in top positions. They work for a management company, Corporate Management Advisors Inc., that is owned by Mr. Caporella. The management company also owns 20% of the aircraft that National Beverage uses, according to SEC filings. 
 
 In June, National Beverage changed its corporate charter to give Mr. Caporella more control over its affairs, allowing for the removal of directors without cause and eliminating the need to win minority-shareholder support for a merger or acquisition. 
 
 Corrections & Amplifications 
 
 Terence Huenefeld withdrew all of his allegations as “factually unsupportable” in settling his lawsuit against Mr. Caporella, according to a document provided by Mr. Caporella’s attorney. An earlier version of this article didn’t include the phrase contained in quotes. (July 8, 2018) 
 
 Write to Jennifer Maloney at jennifer.maloney@wsj.com and Mark Maremont at mark.maremont@wsj.com ||||| The CEO of the company behind LaCroix sparkling water has been sued by two former pilots who say the company's top executive subjected them to unwanted sexual touching on multiple occasions. 
 
 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. 
 
 Caporella is also an experienced pilot who flies the company's jet out of Fort Lauderdale. The co-pilots were in the cockpit with him during the alleged incidents, according to court documents. 
 
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 Lawyers representing Caporella did not immediately return messages from CNNMoney seeking comment. The Wall Street Journal, which was first to report the lawsuits, said Caporella's attorney Glenn Waldman called the claims false and "scurrilous." 
 
 National Beverage (FIZZ) told CNNMoney that the allegations were not true. 
 
 "There is no truth to any of the allegations and nothing remotely akin to the alleged events occurred," the company said in a statement. 
 
 One lawsuit, filed in 2016, claimed that Caporella engaged in a "repeated pattern of unprovoked and unwanted sexual touching." He would allegedly grab the pilot's leg and "commence moving his hand up Plaintiff's left thigh, towards his genitals." 
 
 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. 
 
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 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." 
 
 That case was settled earlier this year for an undisclosed amount, according to Nnamdi Jackson, an attorney for the two pilots. 
 
 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. Pilot Vincent Citrullo says in the suit he was treated like an employee of National Beverage and not a contractor. Broad River did not respond to a request for comment. 
 
 Related: 68% of flight attendants have been sexually harassed, survey says 
 
 On 14 occasions between 2014 and 2015, Citrullo says he was subjected to a pattern of "unprovoked and unwanted sexually oriented touching." 
 
 He also claims a violation of labor laws, saying he was required to work 83 weekend days and nights without compensation. He also says he was not paid proper overtime wages as required by law. 
 
 That case is still pending, according to court documents and Jackson. 
 
 National Beverage has a market value of $5 billion. It found recent success as LaCroix took off as a healthier alternative to sugary sodas.
– 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.