What exactly is the issue with Trico Marine and any alleged potential Jones Act violations?

Christen Sveaas, whose firm is a minority holder of Trico, has been trying to get board representation for himself and a colleague. His claim seems to be that he simply wants to be able to exert some degree of control over Trico's operations, which seems reasonable since the stock hasn't performed well. He also owns a stake in a similar company which operates in the North Sea, raising potential conflicts of interest questions, but for the moment I'll dismiss that as being irrelevant as Trico is focused on the US Gulf of Mexico subsea market. Bottom line, the company's board and management don't want him on the board, which is also reasonable based on the assumption that they are acting out of their fiduciary duty to the company's shareholders.

My question is: what's exactly the issue here? I know that Trico's board had initially rejected the attempt to gain seats on the board on the basis that the resulting foreign representation percentage on the board would render the company Jones Act incompliant. Sveaas countered by asking them to increase the board size from seven to nine. To counteract the company's arguments that giving him what he wanted would jeapordize its Jones Act status, Sveaas claimed that the company already wasn't a US citizen under the Jones Act. I'm not sure exactly why he is arguing this - or rather, I understand why, but don't understand what the basis of his argument is. Any thoughts on the issue here and what sort of precedent this case could set for issues related to foriegn investors in Jones Act companies?

Thanks

You have reasoned out the issue quite clearly. Simply put, Trico does not want any issue regarding control seated in a foreign entity for fear it will not be able under the Jones Act. I think increasing the BofD could be interpreted as attempting to circumnavigate the letter of the law and frustrating the spirit of the law.

From all that I can read, I do not understand the rationale of Sveaas by saying Trico is already a foreign entity. Perhaps he is saying that behind the scenes he is, de facto, running the show already???